The Steppe strikes back (again)

Here’s a look at our units right now:


http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Real_Start.jpg

‘nuff said.
Keshiks are 5.3.3, Defensive Bombard, Blitz, no upkeep, ignore MP of Hills and Mountains. And they have another nice ability...
Unfortunately, we cannot build them at will…


Variant rules:

Surprisingly (considering their image) the Mongols valued trade extremely high.

Tolerance:
When approaching a city, they usually offered pretty acceptable conditions for surrender (and sticked to their offers!).
That means: If a city surrenders (= we capture it without any casualties), the citizens must be treated honourably – no razing, no deliberate starving/whipping to get rid of foreigners.

…and Terror:
But if that generous offer wasn’t accepted, they usually razed cities of new enemies…
That means: Any casualties during capturing the 1st city of a Civ will result in razing that city.
And, for historical accuracy, Baghdad must be razed as well.

We will establish no embassies. We expect those minor nations to come to us! And we will incite no alliances; if we’re asked, we may accept.


Goal:
Domination!

To make this feasible, conquest VPs have been reduced to half.

What you need to know:

• War Council/ White Horde produce a Keshik every 6 turns. Golden Horde @ 5.
• In the next turn, you’ll get a way to start .
• This game: Poland is unusually strong (3 Wonders!). Germany has the HRE. Byzantium seems to have not fought at all so far. We are already at war with Turks and Abbasids (I didn’t cave).

Roster:

romeothemonk
Bede
Gogf

Checking in... Looks like it's going to be one fun game :D.

Is Doc playing?

He's in the other thread.

Do you want to play after romeo?

Checking in and advising that my turns won't get done until Sunday.
VERSION 1.22

Are you playing from the same save, or do you plan to start in 843AD?

I was thinking start from 843AD. Any problems with that?

He's in the other thread.

Do you want to play after romeo?
I'm fine with last.

So we are using 1.22?

I have a good feeling about this SG :).

1.22, Aye. OK?

Bede if you want to go from 843, You better go first. I have to teach myself aerosolation of collodial suspensions for thesis work, so limiting the amount of time I dink around is probably best for me.

Boy, am I ever slow.

Here's the save at T100.

I'll try and play 10 tomorrow.

...and then I forgot the attachment

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Mongols1140AD1.zip

The Setup Files (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Middle_Ages_Mongols1.zip)
1140
Turks and English ally against us.
Poles complete Robin Hood.

T1 1143
Great Distance Units disappear with leaping Hwachas (nice touch Doc)
Keshiks on the move
New Damascus in the south falls, no losses, city is spared. GA starts

Split forces in south to gather map info and threaten two Abassid cities. Gallop south out of Rjazan to find Polish settlement.

Abassids scurry for cover.

Poles are annoyed that our horsemen are on their doorstep. Trade him our WM and 4g for Contact with the Celts and then peddle our WM for some chump change. Use the proceeds to send a diplomat to the Byzantines.

T2 1146
New Medina (Abassid) falls with no casualties. City is spared. Mongols gain four slaves.

Send an emissary to the Poles and ask politely for the knowledge of Castle Building. When he demurs, declare war.

Warna turns out to be s slightly tougher nut to crack as it takes three vasal cav to kill a spear. First Keshik is successful in one against the last defender and the city joins the rapidly expanding realm.

New Baghdad spears forces a Vasal and a keshik cav to retreat. Next Keshik kills the spear. Fourth Keshik kills a defending longbow and we gain the city and a slave.

Send a single vasal cav to scout Abassid. Keshiks above New Baghdad volte face to confront Turks at Rizak north of New Baghdad, defended by a pike.

Abassid Assasins (invisible) are approaching New Medina and a scouting Keshik is killed after killing 1. Second Keshik blitzes two assassins and promotes to elite. Vasal cav kills the last.

Assasins kill vasal cav scouting toward AScalon after forcing retreat.

T3 1149
Keshiks kills assassins creeping up on New Medina and go on to assault Abassid city whose name I cannot see

Turkish pikes at Rizar are more intracatable than Abassid spears and kill four attacking Keshiks. Blitzing Keshik kills two wounded pikes and Rizar burns.

Vasal cav kills another Abassid Assassin and promotes to vet

In the north single blitzing Keshik takes Torum from the Poles.

First Abbasid Ansars show up but it takes three of them to kil a vasal cav. Assassins come at Keshiks in the open, it takes four of them to kill one Keshik

T4 1152
Take Sliven from the Turks in the north, no losses
Keshiks in the south kill Ansar and longbow, one promotion, light casualties.
New Medina is rioting so garrison gets beefed up and I hire an entertainer to sing the sagas of the MOngols to pacify the people.

England declares war on the Byzantines.

T5 1155
Build Karakorum in south between Merv and New Baghdad
Turks and Abassids will talk but both want concessions for peace. Not this Horde!!

I'm going to pass on the game after 5. It plays very fast and furious so be prepared.

There are settlers heading into the gaps both north and south. It may make sense to take a peace deal with the Abbasids and concentrate on closing the gap between the two cores by hitting the Poles, the Rus and the Germans. We are still working blind as I can't buy or extort maps from anybody. I am attaching two files, the first is the scenario setup, the second is the SAV to 1155.

The Save 1140-1155 (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MongolsRedux1155AD.zip)

Have fun (Please read Doc's notes in the attachment and the other thread) carefully.

Roster:

Bede-played the start from 1140 to 1155
romeothemonk-brownie time
Gogf-on deck
SesnofWther-added

One question: what if we have losses when we capture say the second city? Can we raze it?

Also, I can't find the other thread. Can I have a link?

Here's the other thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=88072

As I read the variant suggestions, if our troops suffer unit kill in the attack on a city then burn it to the ground....If all the attackers remain alive, though wounded, then the city is kept. Also once a city is in our hands we are not to starve it into submission.

OK Bede, I'm officially in. Net access went down for a while tonight with the storm blowing through, which was a perfect oppurtunity to figure out the double install. All I need to do now is download the mod. I'll be ready when it gets to me. :)

Re: Razing cities
Must be razed: Bagdhad, the first city of a Civ that is attacked when cusing casulties (to show the other cities of that nation what they'd have to expect)

May not be razed: Any city taken without losses

Everything else is up to you.

A final note:
Don't underestimate the difficulty of this. I'm currently in turn '16', and have only 6 out of 18 Keshiks left in the South, nearly all killed by Assassins...

Romeo?

(This message is too short, etc.)

Order of go:

Bede-played the start from 1140 to 1155
romeothemonk-skipped
Gogf-take it away
SesnofWther-on deck

As always, and it should go without saying, 24/48 rule applies and will be enforced

Can I delay my turn until friday? In other words, Sesno can take it, but I would like to play after whoever finishes on Friday. Thank you!

Sesn,
It's yours if you want it.

OK. Sorry for the disappearing act. I can take it at the earliest on Sat. Silly work schedule.

Well, this does not bode well. Thus far we have 5 turns played, and two skips. Not a great ratio. ;)

I got it.

Should have some turns to post later today, most likely.

See it that way...you have played 105 turns and *only* 2 skips...but sadly, we're missing player(s) as well :(

I'll be able to play again starting Friday though.

@romeo, understood. My work schedule got us slowed down at the start.

@Sesn, have a good time. Play as many turns as you are comfortable with up to 10. I stopped at 5 just becaue things were happening way fast. If you get a peace deal in the south then things should slow down a bit. Just remember, we take concessions, not give them.

Is there any reason NOT to make a Keshik army, if for example, some dude named Ogodei appears?

I wouldn't make more than one Keshik army for each theatre, given the limited supply of Keshiks. They are really powerful, but of course you trade 9 attacks/turn for only 4...
But one or two of those really kick *** ;) .

So, at least make one.

Well, I have to go to work shortly now, so I won't have a log till later today.

I will say the leader appeared in the south where we have had more trouble with the Abbasids than up north. We have fewer living Keshiks there, thus making the army both more valuable, and more costly.

The only reason to not make a Keshik army would be if crack is really cheap in your neighborhood. They are more powerful then knight armies. Great work on pulling a leader. Another nice thing about an army is that we can hide other units under it, but they will almost always hit us with assains, so it is kind of a tossup. But Keshik armies are good.

I have to offer sincere apologies for the delay. I had to help my buddy move when his wife gave him the boot. Here are five turns, which is all I could make time for. I should be fine for ten the next time. On the upside, we now have two armies, and a piece of the map.


Bear with me here. The reason I don’t play many scenarios is because you have to familiarize with everything before you can start playing.

From what I gather, we’re currently at war with Abbasids, England, Turks, and Poland. There are some sort of invisible units running around. If I can’t see them, how can I kill them? We can’t build Keshiks, they just sorta pop out of some city improvements. If we lose units attacking a city, then it burns. If we don’t lose units then we keep it. We’re not allowed to starve off populations. But judging from city builds, we are allowed to peel off workers? I’ll apologize now if I am wrong on these, as these are the assumptions I’ll be playing with.

I change a couple worker builds in the south. I imagine that a worker still uses a pop point, so these size 1 cities shouldn’t be building them

Let’s see how we do ….

IT – We lose elite VC to reg archer/longbow. Lose two more regulars to assassins. New Damascus was left undefended (I had no units to move) and falls to the Abbasids. New Medina riots. Torun worker -> spear.

1158 ad (1) – spears in Denizli retreat one keshik and fall to the next two. We kill four assassins, gaining a leader in the process. I form an army, and run into another assassin when try to move it so it can be filled. I attack the assassin with another elite, and get another leader. I’ll form an army, but I don’t have enough units to fill it. I lose a vet Keshik trying to retake New Damascus. Another Vet autorazes it. I make peace with Abbasids for their Terr Map and 31 gold. They have a lot of territory. Not quite sure where to put these settlers.

IT – Magyars and Byz sign Ma vs Abbasids. Rjazan spear -> worker. New Medina worker -> worker.

1161 ad (2) – lose a keshik in assault on Bytom. Move troops on Aydin.

IT – Rjazan worker -> spear. New Baghdad spear -> barracks. Torun deposes back to the poles.

1164 ad (3) – Elite keshik retakes and burns Torun. I have a spot for one of those settlers now. Aydin: vet keshi lose vs vet pike (-2). VC wins vs reg pike (-1). Reg pike retreats vet keshik and the barracks gets destroyed in the process? Vet keshik loses perfect vs 2/3 pike. reg VC wins vs 2/3 pike. Vet longbow showing, but we’re low on healthy troops.

IT – lose reg VC. Merv VC -> VC. New Medina worker -> worker.

1167 ad (4) – elite keshik wins flawless vs vet spear and vet logbow. Aydin falls. 4 resistors.

IT – Rjazan spear -> VC. Warna worker -> worker. Karakorum barracks -> spear.

1170 ad (5) – Not much, healing troops in Aydin. Send an army to “connect the poles”.

I’m stopping here as I’ve got a busy weekend and a couple sg’s to catch up in first. Very sorry for the delay guys. Turned out to be a moving weekend without any notice. :sad:

Beware of a flip in Aydin, we would lose our entire northern force if it did. I sent the army to do more couting than anything else. We have started to reassemble a force in the south. Those assassins really bite. Our tech progresses at the same pace at min or max research, so leave it down.


>>>SAVE<<< (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MongolsRedux1170AD.zip)

You need a cheap unit for assassin bait. Use the cheap unit to scout ahead. When assasinas are encountered kill them.

Bede-played the start from 1140 to 1155
SesnofWther-played
Gogf-take it away
romeothemonk-on deck

I am back to normal, I think, here.

Got it!

MESSAGE TOO SHORT... :mad:

If this manages to come back to me before Monday, I'll need a skip. I'm moving and won't have the time/ability to play before then.

:wallbash: Forgot I was up. I can't play now though, I have exams tommorow. Just skip me. Starting Thursday afternoon, there won't be any need for any delays :D.

@Romeo,

You're up! :bump:

@Romeo,

You're up! :bump:

I got it. Play tonight or tomorrow.

Since 5 turns seeems to be the norm here, I played 5. That and I didn't want to play 10 and totally stick the next players with my style of mess.
Preturn: MM a little. Add a scientist to increase taxes.
IBT: lose vassal cav to Poles. Byz and Germans start the Hanseatic League.
Turn 1: Kill Pike and Merc at Bingol. Fount Ta-tu and Kazan. Capture Bytom from Poles. Lose Vassal to LB. Lose Keshik to knight.
IBT: Burgundy declares on Byz. Bytom recaptured by Poles.
Turn 2: Bingol is captured. Find random assassains. get more vassals, llose them in the IBT. 2 keshiks die at Edrine. Call off assault as Keshiks can't kill fortified swiss mercs. Gonna have to let the Armies work for us, but they are in the southern theatre.
IBT: Lose a ton of VC.
Turn 3: Raze Bytom and heal armies.
IBT: Polkish knights appear and capture workers and a settler. Turks, Celts and Germans declare on Byz. Theo grants us ROP. Lose 2 spears at Sliven to horde of Polish Knights
Turn 4: Keshiks in their element slaughter polish kinghts in open spawning many VC. Keshiks really louse up the place against assassains and longbows though. Capture Ankara.
IBT: Denizli flips on us. England wants us to pay for peace. I describe quite graphically what their representative can do, and she leaves quickly.
Turn 5: pop MGL down south. Form a keshik army. I did this because they will be the only thing that keeps us attacking. I suggest using armies to assault cities and using any lose keshiks to slaughter the LB's, assassains, and knights people counter at us with. We have 3 armies down south and they should be ready to hit Istanbul next turn. We have 19 keshiks total and 2% of world area. Good news though is that all of the Turks land should quickly fall to us, as I have seen very weak counters, and we have three armies ripping into their southern core.
Save to follow.

This version requires a totally new set of tactics. Instead of just attempting to over run the opponent, I think we must let the armies hit cities, and the free units play cleanup. I normally just let all my units hit their cities like a flood, but this strategy will kill us very quickly.
The poles send stacks of 4-6 knights our way, so watch out for that. I have the northern front on a holding pattern while the southern armies gut the turks. I think this might be a decent plan for awhile. I think Gogf is up next, we will let him try this scenario out.
For the glory of the Horde (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Mongols.zip)

As always, nice set, romeo and good planning.

:bump: :shakehead :

@Gogf,
:bump:
You're up!

This one was really the most desperate needed smilie :D

Bede,
Gogf has requested a skip in all his sg's until further notice (check his sig)
so you might want to move on to the next player.

I guess that willl be me.

Pick up tonight, play tomorrow

@Bede,
:bump:

@Bede,
:bump:

ROTFLMAO! You know it's bad when you have to bump yourself.

ROTFLMAO! You know it's bad when you have to bump yourself.

It is worse than you know. Tried to set up and play the game last night and my whole system went down in flames, crashed and burned. Was dinking around until after midnight just trying to get back to a stable Conquests.

I honestly don't know whether I will be able to carry this one forward, as I am feeling a little snake-bit right now when it comes to swapping upgrades back and forth and then adding Art and Units directories to my Model T machine. (I no longer have access to a second machine for playing games.)

To be honest, I'm impressed with the diligence you've shown thus far, refusing to let this one die. It may be time to give up the ghost on this one .....

No ghost. I refuse to let this one die. If you want we can go short rotations (2-3 players), or try and pick up DH or Doc T and combine into one game.

Do not go gently into that good night! The steppe strikes back one has already died after it became clear that domination just wasn't going to happen. We might have held on long enough to pull out a VP victory, but our military was decimated. Show them the power of the Horde!

So Bede, who is up? I am willing to play another 5 then pass off, or let Sens take a turn, or DH, or whoever. I see this one as still winable, but you gotta play it smart with one baddie at a time, and the bad guy here is the Turks. I think for the mongols to be viable the VC need to detect invisible, or have a modded unit to detect invisible early. The Assains in the lands we hit just chew alive whatever force is availible. I am all for using the Armies of Keshiks to lead with, and let everything else mop-up. Using this, I think the Turks drop in 30 turns, and then we can hit the Abbys or the Byz, whichever is being dogpiled worse.

Take it away Romeo! Thanks.

As soon as I can get my silly machine sorted out I'll let you know. And I'll be lurking...

Since I had last play, I will try and grind out 5 more tonight, then I think Sens is up. If the turns are not up by 4 PM tomorrow, they will not get done until Sat, so someone else can jump. My schedule is at the mercy of my thesis advisor.

Can't attach, and the upload file is down. hmm. Turnlog to come shortly, try to get the save up this afternoon.

I have the next five played, but cannot upload for some reason.

If the turns are not up by 4 PM tomorrow, they will not get done until Sat, so someone else can jump. My schedule is at the mercy of my thesis advisor.

Hmmm. So should I just jump, or do you think you'll be able to find a couple moments to upload when the forums are working properly again?

I have the Turns done. For some reason, I cant get the upload file to work, and I can't attach save because it is 542 kb.

Well, if you get the chance, you can always e-mail it to me, assuming it stays under 3 MB.

SesnOfWthr@hotmail.com

(junk e-mail acct, so I don't mind posting it ;) )

Ill post turns tommorrow and email you the save post haste. The good news, we whacked a turkish king. The bad news we lost a full strength army against a swiss merc in a size 6 city without walls. The turks are nearly sliced in two.

I misplaced my turn log, so I will give a short synopsis.
1. Byzantines and Turks are getting Dogpiled.
2. We have 1-2 cities between our two empires now.
3. We are right next to Ghuzz, the Turkish capitol. (Do not assualt they probably have 10-15 pikes/swiss in there)
4. We lost an army due to really bad rng.
5. I lost 1 loose keshik up north, still tossing aside VC like nothing.
6. Started a series of Temples so we can have some culture/ border expansion.
7. Nothing flipped on us, and I garnered 4 more turk cities.
Thoughts: When the next tech comes in, we should then sign peace with the poles and get Castle building from them. We can probably also get code of laws in the trading, but I wouldn't give gpt. Currently we are at war with the Turks and Poles.

I got the save. Will try to play through tonight, but no promises till tomorrow.

Here's the save for anyone interested:
>>>SAVE<<< (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MongolsRedux1200AD.SAV)

Sorry for the delay guys. I really had to slog through this ten and get back into the game. Some good gains though.

LOG:
Hmmm. I’m pretty sure that this is the right save, but we don’t have any troops, other than a rl VC near Ghuzz.

IT – Poles come asking for peace. I make them sweeten it with Castle Building, 2 gpt, and TM. Wanted an extra 500+ gold for WM. :eek:

Chinese Admin comes in, set research to Khanlig in 18 at –3gpt. Apparently it’s a well-known tech, as everyone has it. I do however find a nice trade with the Kievan Rus. They give us CoL, Early siege, 23 gold, quarry and WM for some iron. :D

1203 ad (1) – Army takes 11hp of damage attacking a single vet merc. :rolleyes:

IT – I fall asleep during the long interturn. (4-5 min)

1206 ad (2) – GA ends. Salonika falls after heavy fighting, gives us 186 gold. Serious casualties, but no losses. We discover a source of quarry after I just traded for some. :shrug: (I know that’s not a real smiley)

1209 ad (3) – I take Izmit with an army, and get 96 gold for the trouble.

1212 ad (4) – Nothing, healing troops. Only Konya is preventing the turks from having a split personality.

1215 ad (5) – Both Konya and Uskudar fall this turn.

IT – Turks steal back Istanbul. :wallbash:

1218 ad (6) – Kill 4 mercs and a sipahi at Patzinak, but it still stands.

IT – Lothair demands gold and TM, tell him to piss off and he does.

1221 ad (7) – Istanbul is retaken. Discover that the heavy resistance in Patzinak was to protect a king unit. They failed. :evil:

IT – Izmit flips back to Turks, we lose a VC.

1224 ad (8) – Izmit retaken.

1227 ad (9) – We now have a decision. Take the slow road and take the cities with the armies, saving the capitol for last. A quicker route: Take the capitol first and eliminate the Turks. The problem with that is we don’t get the cities. I’m not that sure the cities are rally that valuable to us, they just seem to give us something else to defend.

IT – The English destroy the Celts. Theo demands TM and 71g. I know we should probably say no, but I don’t think we can handle her just yet, and we should finish up with the Turks.

1230 ad (10) – I’ll stop here, leaving most of our Keshiks unmoved. I have consolidated the forces in Izmit. They are (for the most part) healed.

I would continue to focus our offense on the armies, doing a little leader fishing when appropriate. I might also advocate just eliminating the Turks, rather than try to take the cities individually. Be wary of using the Keshiks against those swiss mercs, they’re brutal. Counterattacks are virtually nil.



>>>SAVE<<< (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MongolsRedux1230AD.zip)

I'm pretty tempted to grab this now...
Points to discuss:
Why eliminating the Turks? Weaken them, and get as many techs as possible for peace...
What's the status of Byzantium and Abbassids?

Btw, I still think the Mongol variant can reach Domination. It's just too easy to loose most of the Keshiks in the first turns, underestimating the # of Assassins they throw at us. And it plays quite different, so you really have to familiarize - but there is no time to do that. Guess we all would do much better in a second attempt (no, I don't want to start again; I'm currently working on an even more different Venice/ Genoa scenario).

Take it away, Doc.

I would love to see the Master at work on this one.

Got it, then.

I think we may have been just too aggressive early on; what we needed to do is send both halves of our armies against the Turks, assuming that they still hold the Caucusus mountains. We can smash any army in the game, but we have absolutly no production base or culure, which makes sense I suppose. Once we get our empire linked up things will go much better. Dealing with culture flips is also a major problem, and one I don't know the solution to.

Well, the solution is easy, so to speak. Bring out the torches!

But that leads into my next thing: Why are we aiming for domination, and not conquest. As DH said, culture flipping is a major problem, and one that there is no easy solution to. If we were going for conquest, we could just be king hunting out there....but maybe that's part of the challenge?

DH is 150% correct. Except for I think smashing the Abbassids is top priority, that would give us something like a core.

However, this game was in a pretty bad shape....

Please do not feel offended, I just think in a SG obvious mistakes should be open for criticism!

Someone abandoned our 2 Huge Distance units :smoke: ; that forces us to keep a lot of defenders in our royal cities.
No Diplomacy whatsoever. No Techs, no map hawking. Don't complain about not being able to see Assassins, in our (dead) game DH traded for that Tech in the 1st 10!
Why are there German cities in Siberia? The whole point is to grabb the remote colonies, then strike the actual Eastern powers. War is the way to get Techs (at least a discount)
We have been at war with the Abbassids, and they still have their Iron source??? If their is one important goal for a short opening war with them, it's their Iron!
We are importing Quarry? Even 1gp would have been a waste for that.
We weren't mobilized, despite building nothing but units (and 2 useless Temples - Postal Station give culture as well, but since we're Xenophobic, captured cities don't produce cpt anyway for some time).
Our future core cities in the S were nearly undefended, and completely undeveloped. Workers were mining Mountains, instead of bringing Irrigation.


However, it is far from being a lost case :)

@Sens: We would already win by VPs in some turns, if I hadn't reduced the city capture VPs. A VP victory is simply no challenge at all. And Conquest is simply impossible in this scenario, except if you grossly reduce VP scoring.
More important, VPs just don't fit the theme - the Mongols were a completely different culture, the shouldn't gain VPs by returning a Relic...

Domination: We have lower corruption, are COM and can build a second FP...

With the Iron, the Abbassids don't really use it anymore anyway. Once they can build assassains, that is typically all the offense that they build. I missed the quarry import, but we can't build walls without it. with the tech trading I was afraid to pull the trigger, as sometimes when you advance an age you lose all of your invested research in non-essential techs, and I had no desire to lose the 30+ turns into the Tech we were working on. Do whatever you can to make us better Doc, but just be warned the AI values WM's higher than Techs right now, at least to sell to us.

DocT01d – Mongols 1230AD

Ack – where are our 2 Huge Distance units? Pardon me, but whoever abandoned those, this was about the most stupid move I’ve seen in a SG! :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :spank:

Regroup to attack Edrine. Run some Keshiks back South – the slightest attack from Byzantium or Abbassids would wipe out our entire core...and Cleo has easily enough Inquisitors in our lands to do the job.

Turn down Science to minimum.
Buy Jihad from Fatimids for WM and 150gp. Buy Assassination from Cordova for WM and 450gp. Buy Med Combat from the Rus for WM and 350gp. Buy Map Making and WM from Magyars for Med Combat and WM. Era advance. Hawk WM for about 100gp.
Make peace with England, get Polearms for WM, 60gp and 28gpt. Change all builds to Military. Mobilize. Note Postal Stations are flagged as MIL, thus can be built.

IBT:
Turkish Longbow loses to VC near Salonika.
Ankara (Postal Station) -> Pike

Turn 1: 1233AD
Attack Edrine:
3rd Army kills Elite SwissM, -1HP
3rd Army kills Vet SwissM, -3HP
Vet Keshik dies to Reg SwissM
Elite Keshik kills SwissM, -0HP
Elite Keshik kills Assassin, -2HP, MGL Tolui! Will form a VC Army, we don’t have enough Keshiks for another Keshik Army.
Vet Keshik kills Assassin, Edrine captured (we already razed Turkish cities). Last attack destroyed the Barracks, but comes with Marketplace and 40gp.
Move couple of Keshiks and some Slaves South.
Someone did us the favour and connected our 2 territories, we now have 2 Lux everywhere :D

IBT:
2 Turkish Assassins attack, loose a prey Cat, and a VC – however, the VC doesn’t matter, since it was in Salinika which deposes anyway ;)
Our 1st Assassin finishes in the South

Turn 2: 1236AD
Luckily, the auto-Defenders are now only Spears…retake Salinika
IBT:
Keshik in the open defeats Assassin.
Rurik demands Horses…I cave.
2 Keshiks spawn.
Rjazan (Poastal Station) -> Assassin, Karakorum (PS) -> Pike

Turn 3: 1239AD
Approach Antalya.
IBT:
Norwegians destroy the Danes. Turks want to talk.
Merv (PS) -> Assassin

Turn 4: 1242AD
Antalya:
3rd Army slays 3 Swissies (lost only a total of 3HP against the first 2).
Keshik slays Longbow unscratched, slays another Longbow, Antalya captured, comes with Barracks.
Time for peace. And a lot of trades.
Get Theology, Invention, Divine Right, Seamanship, WM and 7gp for peace. Get Medicine, Middle Class, WM, 3gp from Fatimids for Theology and Invention. Get Imp Siege and 40gp from Norway for Theology and Middle Class. Get a Cordovan Slave (how historically fitting!) and 13gp from Castile for Polearms. Hawk around our WM for about 30gp.
Abbassids have 3400+gp! Time to capture a couple of their cities ;)

PLEASE DO NOT AUTOMATE WORKERS!
Didn’t catch it before, since I had a couple of Keshiks on goto in that area.

Btw, we’re dead last even in power :lol:

Notice a problem: We are Xenophobic…no culture for captured cities. Thus I officially drop the rule of not whipping foreigners, as long as we built something that is justified.

IBT:
RoP with Byzantium would cost 120gp, cannot afford it.
Patzinak flips back (1 VC).

Turn 5: 1245AD
Whip a couple of Postal Stations. Move units S.
IBT:
Cleo has about 75 Inquisitors in our lands, and gets pissed because of 2 Workers we have in her territory…

Turn 6: 1248AD
Zzzz…

IBT:
Bremen builds the Hanseatic League. Nicely replayed history.

Turn 7: 1251AD
There simply isn’t anything to do. Get 2 of our Armies down to the South, need to sign a RoP with Cleo again for 110gp.
IBT:
Fatimids declare on Byzantium

Turn 8: 1254AD
Zzz…again. Except that I position to attack the Abbassids next turn…
IBT:
2 Keshiks arrive.

Turn 9: 1257AD
Abbassids seem completely gassed, they don’t muster anything against the Byzantines except Longbows. And, they use Pikes again, despite having Iron? Nevertheless, they now have 4400gp!
Declare straight war. Capture New Mossul, their Iron town. But much more we needed the 90gp..
IBT:
Abbassids sign the Franks against us.

Turn 10: 1260AD
Capture Hatin, defended by a single Spear and an Assassin, 184gp.

Status:
4/3 Land/Pop after excessive use of the whip (Byzantines 12/16)
14820VPs (Byz 15040)


Notes:

The Byzantines really hurt the Abbassids, we should easily capture several cities if we follow them.
I deliberately didn’t mobilize this time, I want the Granary in New Medina, we need a Settler factory.
Our Northern forces should take those 2 German cities, and get Tech for peace. I just didn’t want to attack until I see whom the Abbassids buy in against us.
Mobilization works a little tricky, don’t forget to build nothing but troops, and switch to improvements in the last turn.
Beware of the Sub bug!
I moved Keshiks out of towns with flip risk wherever possible, that’s why some of them are in the open.

Pictures:

The North:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/N.jpg


Mid:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Mid4.jpg


South:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/S.jpg

Edit: Umm, shrinked a bit too much - sorry. :blush:


And the game... (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/1260AD.zip)

Over to ?

@romeo:
I'm not too worried about the Abbassids offensive units, I just don't want them to get even more Swiss Merc.
And I agree on being careful with era advances/ research, however we already researched 2 techs, there would have been 2 safe windows (and the bug didn't strike during turns).

Again, by no means I want to :hammer: on anyone here, if I wouldn't value your skills pretty high, I wouldn't even post here.

I'd be willing to take it, if Bede doesn't mind.

Doc - A couple oopsies I was responsible for:

Importing quarry. I traded a tech to the (someone) for their gold, WM, and quarry. We weren't paying anything for it. The trada was mainly to facilitate getting a WM, which everyone else had put a huge value on. One of the problems I have with scenarios is not knowing what resources are valuable to us, and the civilopedia is just too damn much to remember. As such, I imported it only to get more value from our tech, as we didn't have a supply yet. Alas, a source of quarry was discovered in the south on the very next turn.

IIRC, I made peace with the Abbasids, to try and limit our exposure early, when we were too divided to be effective. I probably should have looked for the iron, but be aware - at the time we could see about 5% of the entire map (maybe).

I think we're all guilty of not thinking about mobilization.

I wasn't asking about VP's, I was asking why we weren't going for conquest. From what I know about regicide games, if we kill all the kings, it eliminates the civ, right? So why aren't we just out there king-hunting?

I imagine by the sub bug you mean our invisible assassin units will work the same?

I like to mobolize, but held off because we needed temples and culture and couldn't build postal stations.
Does this mean that we can all go "Postal"??
Hehe.

@DH, take it away.

@Doc and team,

I was way too hamhanded in the way I opened the game so the mess is 100% mine. I did not spend enough time in up-front prep (like reading the Civilipedia and your notes)and just launched like an unguided missile. When that combined with my hinky machine....let me only say the turns I managed to misplay were excruciating.

Anyway, aplologies to all for booting it so badly.

And Doc, I always appreciate your commentary regardless of the tone. It must be painful to watch a hash being made of your carefully crafted scenario.

Got it. Will play tonight or tommorrow.

Preturn: Rjazin is building a town hall for some reason, swapped to pikemen. I’m not so sure about opening another front on the north, especially since the cities will most likely be hopelessly corrupt and we could really use the troops down south against the Mamelukes, but we could use the tech and additional income. Declare straight up on Germany. Vet Keshik kills a German Longbow hiding out in the woods near Antalya, and enslaves a vassal cav. Vet Keshik out of Sliven captures a pair of German slaves, and discovers that a regular Swiss Mercenary currently defends Hannover. I don’t want to risk the Keshiks, so I will wait for the army to arrive before pressing the attack here. Buy two workers off of Poland for 250 gold and our map.

IBT: The Byzantine hordes run around in circles. Then, to my utter astonishment, THIS runs out of the fog near Antalya:

A TURKISH KESHIK! WHAT THE HELL! How is this even possible? Keshiks aren’t buildable, and this isn’t Alpha Centauri or something where you could bribe troops or something. As long as he isn’t on an attack run, I suppose it doesn’t matter a huge deal. Very odd.

Turn 1: 3rd army kills two regular Swiss mercs defending Hannover, enslaving twice. Vet Keshik attacks reg Merc, wins and promotes to elite. Vet spear on top. Keshik blitzes, but is forced to retreat. Second vet Keshik redlines but kill the spearmen, and Hannover falls. Down south we are awaiting the arrival of our Assassin before proceeding; I don’t want to walk our army into a death trap.

IBT: The Byzantine Inquisition kills off a bunch of Abbassid Assassins, or at least that’s what it sounds like. Abbassids buy the Swedes into the war against us.

Turn 2: New Medina completes a Granary, but with only +1fpt at the moment it can hardly serve as a settler factory until we get those flood plains under our control. Starts on an Assassin for now. Army loses 12 hp killing 2 Vet Mercs in Baghdad. Better be more careful; we cannot afford to lose that army! Attack Stuttgart with Vet Keshik, who loses 4 hp in a row against a spearmen and dies. 3rd army kills a Swede Settler/MDI pair, netting us two workers and an enslaved VC. Army heads south to deal with Stuttgart’s spearmen of doom and then head for the southern front. Mobilize for war. Scouting reveals that a fortified Elite Mercenary defends Basra; should have saved the army for HIM. Wake up two Elite Keshiks and one Elite* Keshik in Denzili and send them to the front.

IBT: The Byzantine and the Abassids beat the crap out of each other. The Turks go insane and declare on the Byzantine, and we spot that traitorous Turk Keshik run out for an attack on Prilep. Abbassids buy the Fatmids in against us.

Turn 3: First army withdraws to New Medina, as Hattin is not defensible and looks like a big flip risk more than anything else. Elite Keshik loses 4 hp attack Stuttgart and its spearmen of doom.

IBT: Lose a Keshik that was covering the retreat of First army to an Abassid Assassin. The Fatmids buy in Norway against us. The last Polish king is slain by German knights, and Poland is eliminated. The Byzantine armies begin to pull back from Baghdad.

Turn 4: Vet Keshik gets a promotion and slave killing a redlined Abassid assassin. Lose an ELITE KESHIK attacking a stinking spear in Stuttgart. Absolutely ridiculous. Tolui is finally able to finish the job, however. Stuttgart falls. It’s a piece of Crap City and I can’t believe it cost so many troops to take, relatively speaking.

Turn 5: Reinforcements arrive from the Steppes. First army loses 7 hp killing and enslaving the Elite Mercenary defending Basra, but another Elite is revealed. I’ll bet the Byzantine threw a bunch of Inquisitors at the city, decimating their offensive force down south and promoting the defenders. The army will have to heal up again; I can’t risk another attack at this point. Load the new vassal cav into the other army. The vassal cav army attacks and kills the second Elite, losing 3 hp and revealing a regular Swiss merc. Second attack costs another 6 hp, but the Vassal army is victorious, promotes, and Basra falls. Thanks for weakening their defenses, Theo. Switch New Medina to a pike so it can get started on Settler production. The Horde moves in to occupy Basra. Next stop: Baghdad.

IBT: Istanbul flips back to the Turks. The Swedes ally with the Cordovans against us, and three Norwegian Berserks and a spear show up outside Edrine, with most of the Golden Horde already on the way south. The Cordovan buy the Bulgars in against us as well.

Turn 6: Germany is willing to talk, but will only accept peace straight up. (Even one gold isn’t acceptable to them). The Golden Horde reverses direction and head back north, with the exception of First Army, which is now trapped in Turkish territory and will continue south. Assassins and Keshiks surround Baghdad while the armies heal up.

IBT: The Magyars are eliminated by the Kievans. Germany declares on the Byzantine for no apparent reason. Spot a Turkish Vassal Cav.

Turn 7: 1st army attack Baghdad, killing two veteran mercenaries, but losing 11 hp. Regular merc now defending. Elite Keshik goes next, inflicting one damage but then forced to retreat. Vet Keshik inflicts one damage, dies, but he manages to destroy the barracks. Baghdad is down to two mercs. ¾ Vet Keshik kills another, one left. Vet Keshik from Hattin has enough MP to make it there in time to attack. Last Swiss Mercenary defeated; they have a regular sword on top now. Kill two Berserks up north.

IBT: 16 Swedish units come out of the fog, including 6 Berserks. There is absolutely NOTHING up there to stop them, but they still need a couple of turns to reach attack position.

Turn 8: ¾ Vet Keshik kills a sword, an assassin, and a Caliph and razes Baghdad to the ground. 3rd army has also finally arrived from the north. Defeat the last of the Norwegian troops, and send the Keshiks galloping north.

IBT: DAMN! I forgot about the Inquisitor’s ATAR ability. Swedish Inquisitors take Sliven, taking one casualty. This also cuts off a few cities from our road network, causing a few riots. Basra flips to the Abassids, costing us an Assassin and two pikemen. It’s getting razed next.

Turn 9: Buy Wines of the Byzantine for a couple hundred gold. An Elite Keshik blitzes Sliven killing and enslaving two Inquisitors and retaking the city. The new vassal cav kill another two Inquisitors, including the Elite one that took the city last turn. The Swedes are now willing to talk. 340 Gold gets us a peace treaty, and I take the deal. I may have decimated their Inquisitors, but their main SoD is still fully intact. Since our northern forces are now in the area anyway, they can move against Great Bulgar and Plovidiv and maybe force Ateas to the table.

IBT: The Traitor Keshik is spotted again outside Zonguldak, battling Byzantine Inquisitors. Konya flips to the Turks.

Turn 10: Peace with the Swedes means we are now de-mobilized; I will leave it up to the next leader to decide if we should stay that way or not. Plovdiv falls to a Keshik blitz. First and third armies raze Basra to the ground, looting 111 gold. That’ll teach em to revolt.

NOTES: Our troops occupying Plovdiv are exposed to a Bulgar longbow; no way around it then I can see. Settler pops from New Medina next turn, so use him to reclaim some of that fertile land we’ve, ah, terra-formed.

The save (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Temujin_of_the_Mongols,_1275_AD.SAV)

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/traitorcav.JPG

A Turkish Keshik??? Are they a Khanate maybe, and built the Golden Horde SM?

Excellent played, DH! Next player should consider finishing off the Turks, if we have enough troops left in the North. Blitz the flipped cities, and kill their last (Edit: King, not turn) before they can flip again.

Agreed. The abbassids are on the ropes, and with three armies active on that front we should be able to handle them fairly easily. Make sure to keep Assassins covered at all times-The Byzantines have lots of soldiers running around in circles and war with them at this point would probably destroy us. Taking out the Turks will be a little difficult now that they have at least one Keshik running around, but we need to get rid of them ASAP; all these culture flips are killing us. We may as well make peace with the Germans since we can't reach any of there cities, although if we built a Galley somewhere we could sail over and attack Nuremberg, so that is another option.

Who is up?

ummm, Bede I think, if he got his comp whipped back into shape. otherwise I think it goes to you, Romeo. BTW - Gogf is gone for a month, so we shiouldn't expect him to be involved.

Roster?
Bede - [b]UP[\b]
Romeothemonk - on deck
SesnOfWthr
Doc Tsiolovski
Deceased horse

Does that seem accurate/acceptable to all?

Can't guarantee anything at the moment, but 1.22 has been stable for while.

I'll take a stab at this tomorrow night if that works for you guys. You're doing real real without my "help" :blush:

To the Riders of the Golden Horde:

I have to resign this one. It is now 10:00 PM and in the last two hours have made a valiant attempt to load and play. Two reloads later, I am still watching the flashing green light on the CD drive with no graphics on the screen....I flat don't get it but it is starting to get me!! :aargh:


The same thing happened when I tried to run a modded vanilla game some time ago. The start locked up and I drew a blank screen, no error messages, just black with a mouse cursor in the middle.

Trying to swap back and forth betwen 1.15 and 1.22 and having to use CD storage to do it has something to do with it, I'm sure. So, as an old CE of my acquaintance used to say "If all else fails, reformat the hard drive."

I guess that's what I get for trying to play a game that needs a 400MB swap file with something less than 200MB on the hard drive....

Sorry to hear that Bede. :(

Just one more problem with multiple patches...

I suppose it's Romeo's, if he wants it?

I am partaking in 4th of July proceedings and heading from the thriving metropolis of Rapid City to Podunk Wyoming. Please skip me until the evening of the 5th.

No chance for turns from me until possibly Thurs and maybe Fri.

:cry: Bede...

But what exactly is the problem? This game is in 1.22 as well and doesn't need a double installation - are you sure you tried to load in a path that can find the default path to the ptw Medieval Japan folder? Can you play the Sengoku conquest?

Actually guys, I can call got it as I don't leave till tommorrow. I will try and bang out some quality turns tonight.

Umm DH the save is kinda whacky. Baghdad is still there, as are the Magyars. The RnG Hated me on my first 2 turns, but I noticed many inconsistencies and wondered if you had posted the wrong save.
The world I have is much different then your report.
It looks like I will have to ask for that skip then until this gets straigtened out.

You know what's interesting Romeo? When I last took the save from you, you mentioned that our troops were at the Turks capitol. They weren't even close to there. I figured this was due to the fact you played two sets in a row, but now I'm wondering...

Were they booted in a move?? This is really odd. The funniest thing is that no single turn log from DH matched the save I had. Is my computer messing me up??

They just weren't there when I loaded the save. As a matter of fact, I'm sure I still have the save at home if someone knows how to check for corruption...

OOOPS. I uploaded the wrong .sav file, this is the correct one.

Will the real save please stand up? (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Temujin_of_the_Mongols1290_AD.SAV)

I leave in a few hours so I think that Sens is up then.

:bump: :D:

just not willing to let it go, eh Doc?

Fine fine. I got it. :)

I'll be out for the next 3 days.

Sorry guys, I just haven't had the chance to get to this in this past couple days.

Tonight, I swear.

Until then, maybe someone could refresh me on what our immediate short term goals are? :D

Carefully beat on the Abbassids, then resettle their lands.
Once peace expires, recapture the Turkish cities, and kill them off (they have only one King left, in Ghuzz).
Make peace with Germans.

And don't risk Keshiks :)

Seems easy enough. Thanks for the concise summary, Doc. ;)

Well, I wasn't able to finish a whole set, but I wanted to post something, so here's seven anyhow. I can play the last three during normal hours Tuesday evening. These five+ minute interturns are driving me nuts at 3 am. :crazyeye:

Germans will take peace straight up. Won’t even throw in 1g the cheapskates. Take it anyhow, we have no way to threaten them ATM.

IT – Abbasids and English sign MA against us. We lose an elite Keshik to a Bulgar longbow.

1293 ad (1) – Army loses 12 hp to a reg swiss merc! Reg pike showing in Medina.

IT – Two elite Keshiks win, one enslaves.

1296 ad (2) – Army kills reg pike and merc showing in Medina. Lose 9 hp. Reg spear retreats elite keshik, lose 1 hp. 2/3 spear kills vet keshik, lose 1 hp. Rl spear still showing. I press the issue with 3 hp army and win. Medina is ours. Elite keshik kills vet spear in city-whose-name-is-off-the-bottom-of-the-screen. VC army moves on side-of-screen-city.

IT – Abbasids sign Burgundians on against us. Byz take Istanbul and Prilep from the turks.

1299 ad (3) – Elite cav kills reg spear in New Aleppo and enslaves. VC kills last reg spear and takes the town. VC army loses 5 hp killing reg pike in side-of-screen-city. Vet assassin kills vet longbow and promotes. Almarikh founded on northern rubble pile. Send as many units as I can towards Turkish land before they’re no longer Turkish…

IT – Cordovans come asking for peace, but won’t pay for it. The Byzantines are absolutely flooding the Turkish lands with inquisitors.

1302 ad (4) – Peace treaty ended, declare on turks. I’d like to get a piece of them before the byz destroy them. We kill reg spear in Patzinak with elite keshik, move more troops in range. Capture Odessa and get a cat for our troubles. While regrouping troops back to Hatin for healing, accidently run into an assassin with a 2/5 keshik. Unbelievably, he survives. :) Will rename him Lucky. Vet keshik captures Konya.

IT – Abbasids sign on Kievan Rus against us. Not a wonderful proposition since most of our troops are in the south…

1305 ad (5) – go back into mobilization. Vet VC kills reg spear in Patzinak (-3). Elite keshik kills assassin and takes the city, loots 120g. Vet keshik kills Rus spy outside town, enslaves, and promotes (-1). Elite keshik kills Abbasid spy, enslaves. Elite Keshik storms reg pike in Iznik, wins, lose 1 hp, PROMOTE. Vet keshik blitzes to victory in Iznik. Build army.

It – Salonika deposes, we lose a reg VC.

1308 ad (6) – keshik and assassin take Salonika back. I see a MGL under a longbow for the turks. Kill the longbow and the leader. :D Really roll the dice and attack archer in Velzprin with 2/4 VC. The rng loves me and flawlessly promotes.

It – Reg VC on grass defends twice, loses a hp twice, and promotes twice.

1311 ad (7) – Army kills two spears and an archer to take Sinop. Only Ghuzz is left now. Mostly shuffling units and picking off strays. Plovdiv could be attacked by an inquisitor, though.


>>>SAVE<<< (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MongolsRedux1311AD.SAV)

Would it be possible to reduce the defence of Ghuzz, make peace for techs, and let the Byz finish the Turks off? :evil:

Possible? Yes, most likely. The problem is that I have seen large numbers of units now going AWAY from Ghuzz. AFAIK, they're still at war, but don't seem to want to finish them off. I was just trying to grab as many cities as I could before they got the last king unit and "poofed" the rest of the Turks.

imagine my surprise when I captured the last city (except Ghuzz) without a "poof"!

EDIT: just remembered that Turks were going to be "insulted" including the one tech they have for peace.

Then, it's time to say Goodbye, Osman (or whatever he's called here).
:D

1314 ad (8) – Army kills Merc in new Antioch. Lucky kills reg spear and takes the town. Army moves on and kills two Mercs in Sidon. VC wins and promotes vs Rus inquisitor. Heal army for a turn before attacking Ghuzz.

IT – A Turk keshik captures back Iznik. Wasn’t expecting that. Germans and English declare on us.

1317 ad (9) – Elite keshik and enslaved VC retake Iznik for the glory of the Horde. VC promotes. Army kills vet Merc in Ghuzz. One more turn for the Turks…. We’re also banging on the gates of Jerusalem….

IT – Bunch of German inquisitors move in to our lands.

1320 ad (10) – Armies kill two vet mercs defending Ghuzz, along with a vet sipahi (which is nerfed to 6.3.3) and a reg spear. The city crumbles under the hooves of the mighty Keshik. While mopping up the german units, I pop an MGL. Since we get build the Golden Horde next turn, I save him for the next player. The rng quickly evens itself out when a vet Merc kills our 11 hp army at Jerusalem. :pissed:

Recap: the Turks are gone. We have a spare leader in Patzinak. Khanate is due in 1, I would probably recommend rushing the third horde (Iznik maybe?). Mobilization has stopped due to the elimination of the Turks. I have a small stack that had been building in Almarikh, but the armies were tearing through everything. Due to the loss of the army in the south (our odds were 86.3%) we now are a bit thin down there, and the stack may be useful, though slow. In the same area there is a settler headed for the other rubble pile. I have tried to keep a couple units in each ton that borders the Rus. I have not seen many units from anyone coming into our land (well, except for the byz).


>>>SAVE<<< (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/MongolsRedux1320AD.SAV)

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads7/Mongols.JPG

With Patzinak being the by far best city the Turks have, I'd rush the Horde right there, unless we're in danger of loosing it, of course. The wonder will produce Keshiks at a faster rate btw.

Romeo, are you back, or should we switch/ skip? I'd just want to keep this game running now, as long as it got some momentum back.

I'm back. They cancelled the surgery the morning of, and I just needed a day or two to vent. Won't play till Friday though.

I don't think the city is in danger of anything other than a concentrated push. It would be really nice to have an army in the area, (two, once they heal). Many elites up there for fishing with.

BTW - we had approx 21000 VP's at last check (in my last three turns)

Whoops, call got it now. Time opened up.

On Turn 2 I got the following msg.
I will not be able to get to this till Sat at the earliest now. Hopefully this can be fixed.

Doh' :wallbash:

Yes, that can be fixed, probably there's just a stupid typo in the pediaicon.txt file.
Sorry for the inconvinience; fortunately, this is not a big deal - however, annoying.

I think I am being cursed with this game. Last 2 attempts have not done so well. Since I have spoiler knowledge now, someone else should probably grab it next.

Ok, then I grab it now, making sure to fix it.

Short update:
- Bug fixed
- The Turks (and Abbassids as well) did indeed research 'Children of the Steppe', thus they must have revolted to a Khanate and built one of the Keshik Wonders. A big surprise, but no bug at all. :lol:

Mongols 1320AD

First, the bug-fix (you don't need it to play on, only if you want to start a new game; Wondersplashes are :mad: since they cannot be tested in debug, they always cause trouble)
Replace (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/PediaIcons.zip)

Check F3, and the Abbassids are in fact a Khanate :lol: Talk about cultural conversion…
That also expains why their cities are all size 1 :smoke:

Something extremely annoying is that edge of the map. Find one more Abbassid city in the lower left corner, and a Kievan Spy that would have captured undefended Stuttgart in the interturn. Kill a stray Abbassid Longbow.

Then, Diplomacy. We are at war with EVERYONE except Sweden and the Byzantines. This wasn’t meant to be AW….
We could buy Prof Armies from Sweden, but I see now immediate use for it; should get it via pointy stick as well.

The South looks in good shape; some cities need culture, and since we’re demobilized, I switch a couple of builds there.
We’re a bit stretched thin in the North, but no immediate danger.

IBT: nothing frightening. Barb camp appears next to former Baghdad
Khanlig -> Norse Tradition

Turn 1: 1323AD

Rush the Golden Horde in Patzinak – a great city spot, and it has a Market and Sheriff’s Office.
Healing turn. Make peace with Norway and Bulgars.
IBT:
Barb Warrior impales. Golden Horde finishes. Sidon flips, Keshik lost.

Turn 2: 1326AD

Kill units. Retake Sidon.
IBT:
2 Keshiks. A total of 25 German (Bows, Crusaders, Swissies, even 3 Trebuchets) units show up :eek:

Turn 3: 1329AD
Germans refuse to talk.
IBT:
Even more Germans show up :shudder:

Turn 4: 1332AD
And the Germans still refuse our envoy…take my chance and capture the bigger German city next to us with an Army. Now, they will talk – but we’d still have to pay 100gp. Then, I also capture the 2nd one (only defended by Spears) – peace for 80gp. Take it. :phew:
IBT: Byz capture Jerusalem. Barb camp near former Ghuzz.

Turn 5: 1335AD
Lucky kills a stray Longbow near Sidon, and is no called ‘Lucky,indeed’ for spawning a MGL and a VC :D Of course, he will be the first member of Lucky’s Army.

Turn 6: 1338AD
Capture an invisible town from the Abbas (turns out to be Gaza). Capture 2 former Magyar towns from the Rus (no culture means low flip risk).
IBT:
The Byzantines destroy the Abbassids (but didn’t gain more then ~500VPs).

Turn 7: 1341AD
At least, that eliminates the flip risk. We could make straight peace with a small discount for a tech with the Fatimids, but I currently see no need for that; just good to know in case they start sending units. Same with the Rus, with a little more discount.
Not much else, kill couple of Rus.
IBT:
The RNG hates me, and 2 Rus Inquisitors manage to bring an Army down from 8/14 to 1/14. Plus they retreat a VC, and capture some Slaves.

Turn 8: 1344AD
With some Longbows and Berserks next to a wounded Army with no retreat options because of German units cluttering our roads I make peace with the Rus for a discount on Prof Armies. Make peace with the Fatimids as well, and get Rel Prosecution and small change for Prof Armies.
For the first time, we are not at war with any neighbors…
IBT:
Make peace with England. RoP with Theo expires. Wine import expires.

Turn 9: 1347AD
Get Wine from Fatimids for Tar. Not a single combat.

Turn 10: 1350AD
Zzzz..

Ok, that’s it. We’re up 3 Techs on the Norwegians, once Norse traditions comes in, trade for Smithing. The Markets are prebuilds for Blacksmiths.

No way we could win this by Domination, but at least we should try to get the biggest territory. We are at 10/8 land/pop, compared to Byz with 13/14. We will get a bit bigger with a few more expansions.
So, I’d suggest: Get a bit more culture (don’t forget to whip the foreigners). Get a few Blacksmiths. Shut down research, upgrade all Pikes, mobilize, and fight it out with the Byzantines. This will need some planning, since we need to blitz the cities which separate our territory.
We are btw clearly #2 in power, and finally ahead of a few Civs in score (don’t ask about culture :rolleyes: , but our influence seems pretty high – the Byzantines are a Khanate as well since this turn, and that brought down their pop drastically :rotfl: )

Score is 24255 to Byz 21150.

Save (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Mongols1350AD.zip)

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Mongols1350AD.zip

Great turns Doc. I concur with your ideas.
This is one of my favorite conquests, but I do not think I will use this mod again. The AI loves to go into khanate due to the Unit upkeep, and this really unbalances the whole design of the scenario, how to balance troops with cash.
I am not saying the mod is bad, it is greatly thought out and executed, but the new government unbalances it for my style of play. Just my 2 cents.
I am excited to see this mod played out though.

but the new government unbalances it for my style of play. Just my 2 cents.


Sadly, I agree. Fascism really kills the AI; I just didn't expect the other Civs to research it that fast....

Lucky kills a stray Longbow near Sidon, and is no called ‘Lucky,indeed’ for spawning a MGL and a VC Of course, he will be the first member of Lucky’s Army.

:rockon:

Just a quick note here: I won't be able to play this if I come up in the next week. You can either skip or wait for me. Tuesday for sure. :)

Who's up, btw? Romeo or DH, depending on if Romeo wanted to be skipped, or just switch the turns.

Is their any way to just make the goverment mongol only, like the 'being X' techs DYP uses?

I can't touch this till the weekend, due to the 2 hours it would require. Then I'll just find another bug.. Just kidding. But I really can't touch until the weekend.

IHT: Nothing to do.
IBT:
Turn 1: Plovdiv Postal station to Bushi. Ankara TH to VC. Edessa rax to Pike. Moved workers letting others head to the Byz first.
IBT: Norse comes in, set to education
Turn 2: Trade 3 techs apiece with the Norwegians. Set to smiths. Get keshik, Uskudar TH to Pike. Zonguldak rax to pike. Positioning troops
IBT: Burgundians and Bulgars team up against us.
Turn 3: Merv Smith to VC. Rjazan Smith to VC. Swap patiznak to Smith.
IBT: The Burgundians have come with a vengence and capture szomabathy. Byz declare on us and start the silk road.
Turn 4: Rioting due to lux not being there. Capture Istanbul. Capture Prilep. Kill a few burgundians then pay them 80 gold for peace. Assualt jerusalem, killing the swiss. Capture Taomina, and our empire is connected for a bit anyway.
IBT: Resistance ends, Byz pillage a little, steal a worker or 3.
Turn 5: Cities build for offense and culture.
IBT: Franks and Castillians team up against us.
Turn 6: We autoraze Jeruslem. Autoraze New Adrianople. Capture Samsota. Lose a full strengh Luckys army on 1 fortified Swiss merc.
IBT: We lose taormina, as luckys army fell last turn. We get hit with the plauge, Byz finally start an SOD our way.
Turn 7: Recapture Taormina. Whack misc units. Get peace with the franks for 40 gold.
IBT: Byz inquisitors hit us, but mostly paint targets for our keshiks.
Turn 8: Capture Ani. Move stuff
IBT: Samosota Deposed us. The first byz keshik lost to one of ours, but they overwhelmed our poor guy with massive numbers of inquisitors.
Turn 9: Kill misc units. reposition for Defense. The IBT has us facing the Byz SOd.
IBT: Lose 2 keshiks and 2 VC, kill 5 byz attackers.
Turn 10: Capture Onhi. Kill misc stacks of 1 defense units. Capture New Tyre. Leave the rest to next player. We are first in land and second in pop, and have 27,500 YP while the Byz have 22500.

Country Roads (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/Mongols1383AD.SAV)

Lose a full strengh Luckys army

Looks like he wasted all his luck earlier...

Well played. That means, DH should finally in this.
Number 1 in land is at least a partial victory IMHO.

Got it. :nuke:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MONGOLSWIN!.JPG Preturn: Move units out of cities hit by the Black Plague. Hit and run attacks on the Swiss Pikemen holding the road south of Bingol costs us one Keshik, kill 2 Pikemen. Sell tar to Rurik for 23 gpt, his attitude goes from furious to annoyed. 1st Army kills two mercs, enslaving one. The new slave gets sent back to Ani for garrison duty, as activating first army had left the city uncovered.

IBT: The Byzantines kill our elite Ashigaru holding one of the mountains, than through everything they’ve got available against Toarima, even attacking with pikemen. They kill every defender, including an Elite Keshik, but can’t defeat the lone stone crossbow who promotes to elite and kills three attackers while redlined. The city stands, barely. Byzantine Inquisitors advance en masse. Urfa flips to the Kievan Rus, taking two Vassal Cavalry with it.

TURN 1: Troops dispatched to capture Great Bulgar. Byzantine siege camps around Taormina destroyed by the two Keshik armies.

IBT: Byzantine Inquisitors attack New Baghdad, nearly capturing the city. A single vassel cav with 1 hp is all that is left standing. Byzantine soldiers surround Taorimina. The Byzantines are starting to catch up with us VP-wise.

Turn 2: Sign peace with the Cordovans, getting Education at a discount for 320 gold and 20 gpt. Buy Milling off the Swedes for 66 gpt. This raises our VP to 28500. New Constantinople falls to our Vassel Cav army some buddies. Fighting in the mountains near Taorimina generates a new leader, Jochi. Create an Ashigaru Pikemen army in Bingol. Keshiks and the new army manage to smash their way through to Taorimina, and the Pike army moves into defensive positions. I think the city should be safe now…

IBT: The remaining Byzantine troops decline to attack the pike army.

Turn 3: The newly-healed Keshik armies smash through the Byzantine forces, and begin moving to attack Brusa, which has been reduced to size one because of the Black Plague. The Vassal Cavalry army and his buddies move into range of Iconium.

IBT: Byzantine Keshik kills an elite spy outside of New Baghdad…
Byzantines counter-attack all along the front. New Tyre falls to a spy. Black Plague continues to spread. Get the 20-turn warning until the game ends.

Turn 4: Recapture New Tyre immediately; Stone Crossbows were already moving to reinforce the city before it fell. Defeat and enslave the Traitor Keshik. Raze Brusa. 800 Vp’s to victory; if I can capture say, Great Bulgar next turn; that should be enough.

IBT: New Constantinople falls when a Traitor Keshik kills a Warrior Monk, enslaves him, and sends the ensuing VC to attack the city.

Turn 5: Great Bulgar falls, but the stinkin’ Bulgars had been drafting spears, so we don’t receive as many points as I had hoped. Sign a Peace treaty with Ateas in exchange for a discount on Parliament, brining our VP total to just 20 short of 30000. I go ahead and raze Iconium and recapture New Constantinople, which puts us over the limit. Then I kill some more Byzantines and capture Bolo for fun. And that’s the way it ends. We do finish first in land area.
The Last Save (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads8/MONGOLSWIN.SAV)

Yay, we lumber to the finish line. Nice work everyone, and we didn't even give up. :goodjob: Still waiting for a possible Polish and Bulgar mod, just so that I can say I beat the middle ages with everyone at Monarch or above levels. (Most of them where above monarch, but the toughest are the norwegians, cordovans, and fatimids, (left field players).)
I expect the bulgars to be very challenging, but the Poles to be a pushover.

Nice job, all. Quite a different crew than we began with, but that was half the fun.

Nice to see we were able to grind it out.

:goodjob:

:thumbsup:

And it's the first time I/we managed to be #1 in land, at least.

@romeo:
I don't see the point in a Polish mod (unless ONLY domination is enabled). They are definetely easier then Germany or Burgundy. Bulgars, well, I'm still trying to find a background story. However, I spent some time on a Venice/Genoa scenario based on this Conquest (since the AI does not return its Relics anyway, why don't make treasure spawning improvements comparably to AoD). Didn't finish it yet, but would someone here be interested?

Do you even have to ask ;)

Sorry, Doc.

After playing this, I remembered why I don't like scenarios - there is too much to learn from the get go. I have enough trouble trying to be proficient in the epics... :rolleyes:

No problem, sesn.
Despite not liking scenarios, you did a real good job here, and especially didn't surrender. :thumbsup:

I was aiming more for the Middle Ages fanatics.