[Sword of Islam]: Byzantine Conquest

OK, it was Samarkand's peaks that were turning me off. Thanks for pointing out Samarkand's advantages.

Actually, we can raze both Samarkand and Bukhara, and build 1W of Samarkand--best of both worlds!

Turn 0: 1490
Trade Dates to Ak Koyunlu for 2gpt. Drop science to raise some funds for ship upgrades. Unfocus our espionage spending.

Turn 1: 1492
Samarkand joins us, it has one settled Great Engineer. I agree with AP that it looks better than Bukhara. Ship upgrades. Steal 21g from Armenia. Destroy a Muslim Macemen near Damaskos.

Manzikert is building the Imam Reza Shrine. Re-route some of our espionage units to Manzikert to (eventually) sabotage this production.

Turn 2: 1494
Khiveh and Bukhara are captured by Armenia. Destroy a Bedouin Camel Archer near Kufa.

Turn 3: 1496
Dongola joins us, with 2x settled Great Generals and 1x settled Great Saint. Rebel city of Ahmednagar spawns NE of Kolhapur, our troops head out to deal with it. 2x Tajik Heavy Horse Archers destroyed near Bamiyan. 1x Bedouin Camel Archer destroyed near Dongola.

Turn 4: 1498
Great Artist born in Smyrna. Micromanage economy to reduce gold in hand so as to avoid the 3rd UHV condition. Turn 5: 1500
Orthodoxy spread in Samarkand. Raze Ahmednagar.

Turn 6: 1501
We fail the 3rd UHV criterion. Safavids spawn. Refugees in Kolhapur. LOTS of Uzbek Heavy Horse Archers spawn near Samarkand. Bukhara razed. Destroy Bedouin Camel Archers near Madinah and Damaskos.

Turn 7: 1503
Refugees in Samarkand. Jews settle in Smyrna. More Uzbek HHAs around Samarkand.

Turn 8: 1504
Harbor in Konstantinopolis is destroyed by enemy infiltrators. More Uzbek HHAs near Samarkand.

Turn 9: 1506
Sabotage production in Manzikert. Yet more Uzbek HHAs near Samarkand. Sana'a cultural borders expand and we hook up Coffee to the south. Purge Judaism from Smyrna.

Turn 10: 1507
Destroy a Muslim Maceman near Hamadan. Rebel city of Merv has spawned and is being swarmed by Uzbek HHAs. Some of our troops from Samarkand head out to deal with it.

To do:

• We should war with either Ak Koyunlu or Safavids soon.
• Rebuild improvements in Nubia.

AnotherPacifist said:

Actually, we can raze both Samarkand and Bukhara, and build 1W of Samarkand--best of both worlds!

Click to expand...

Didn't see this post until I had already played the turn set.

I'll play tonight and wipe out the Safavids.

Our next "manual" Great Person will be born in Smyrna, so I have set all specialists in Smyrna to Saint. This will put as about 40-50% chance of a Great Saint.

Also, remember from time to time to sabotage production in Manzikert before Armenia finishes the Imam Reza Shrine there.

Jusos2108 said:

I'll play tonight and wipe out the Safavids.

Click to expand...

Actually, a far bigger problem is the Portuguese who are about to spawn and invade near Bandar-e Abbas which is lightly defended, to say the least.

blizzrd said:

Actually, a far bigger problem is the Portuguese who are about to spawn and invade near Bandar-e Abbas which is lightly defended, to say the least.

Click to expand...

But do we start at autowar with them? I don't think so (it's only Oman and Bahmani that have that misfortune). Build a frigate or 2 just to be safe.

They DOWed on spawn from the posted save above, when I just hit 'end turn' a couple of times.

Awesome, how well are we prepared? I assume DOWing is due to the fact that we have Masqat (Oman). Maybe I should liberate it to someone else and see what happens.

We are not well prepared at all. We have more forces in Oman than Bandar-e Abbas, but both were overwhelmed by the Portuguese troops that landed on my first run-through.

Let me know if I need to redo the turn set because I have poorly prepared things for the Portuguese. They caught me unawares.

Turn 0 Reroute units towards Bandar-e-Abbas. Draft arqebusier in Masqat.

Turn 1 Portugal declares war on us, many carracks are spotted around Masqat. I place couple Heavy Cavalries on both sides of weakly defended Masqat, so that Portuguese wouldn't land next to it. Reinforcements are waiting in ships, if needed. Another surprise that the Funjs spawn next to Dongolo.


Turn 2 Plan works! The portuguese forces land next Bandar-e-Abbas (just Abbas from now on). We kill all of them without losses. We also destroy the Portuguese forces that where going to found Goa. Total of 3 arquebusiers, 2 cannons and 6 heavy infanries are destroyed. Funjs are also repelled, we kill 2 marksmen, 2 camel riders and 6 heavy lancers, while defending and attacking.


Turn 3 More Porguese around Abbas, we kill them all (6xHIs, 2xCannons, 1xArquebusier). I increased our income by ~70gold per turn by changing all the engineers to merchants in the cities that were building wealth! Someone changed them into engineers, again?!?


Turn 4 Portugal has realised that landing next Abbas doesn't pay of, so they attack one of our shields next to Masqat. Only one Heavy Infantry is able to land though, rest are killed while trying. Otherwise the turn is peaceful.


Turn 5 Three portuguese HIs are killed next to Abbas. I also assassinate an Armenian GG in Manzikert for destroying lot of our buildings!

Turn 6 Two HIs and a cannon are destroyed next to Abbas.

Turn 7 More Portuguese Carracks spawn in the Gulf of Persia.

Turn 8 Three cannons, two arquebusiers and nine HIs are killed next to Abbas. We lose two arquebusiers.

Turn 9 Portuguese sneak in the fog and land next to Makkah. Since there are not enough units around there, I sign a cease fire. Imam Reza Shrine's production is sabotaged.


Turn 10 Our first frigate is build in Abbas, we need more!


Notes and suggestions

-Forces are on their way to rout the Portuguese units close to Makkah.
-We need frigates, since there are 14 carracks next to Abbas and two next to Makkah
-Take Safavids out, the Portuguese are basicly done.

-Improve stability

A little excitement is what we needed! Can't just dominate the world forever.

Playing now.

0. I recall some of the troops in Samarkand back to the west (since the barb spawn in 1500 got taken care of)
1. Dongola is under intense barb pressure. Lost an arqubusier there.
2. Kill the rest of the barbs near Dongola. Meet the Mughals and declare war on them before they found Agra. Sabotage Manzikert's production and steal some gold.

3. A freaking Funj marksman kills our heavy cavalry! Copper discovered near Esfahan. Ak Koyunlu asks us to declare war on Safavids, well not yet. Agra razed.

Couldn't recall those arborcidal workers quick enough and got captured by the Mughals; they paid for their crimes against the Earth.
Abbas gets a good event:

4. Dhara Nagari gets refugees. Wasit gets a religious revolt. Somehow all those Portuguese near Makkah disappeared (got loaded back up on the carracks or they just didn't have the money to pay for them ).
5. I kill the last visible Mughal horse archer and yet they are still alive. I send some scouts up northern India.
6. Safavids capitulate to Armenia!
7. Still can't find the missing Mughals...
8. ...found them! hiding in the corner of the map E of Agra ruins!
9. Portuguese want to OB, no. Kill most of the Mughals...
10. ...and they die. Estado da India spreads to Abbas (+22 gold and +22 science!)...seems to be a lucky city. Sabotage Manzikert's production again. Stability at 31.

To do:
1. I think we should just declare war on the Safavids/Ak Koyunlu and their master Armenia next turn, after we steal Patronage. Sure, it might make espionage against Armenia a little higher, but we've got so much of it that it doesn't really matter.
2. We can probably sail to the end with 36 turns of golden age.
3. Troops are all set to invade from multiple places at once.
4. Remember there will be Mongols coming east of Ajayameru so don't leave it undefended.
5. Rebuild either Dehli or Agra or Lahore to fulfill our need to own at least 1 city in Mughal spawn area.

Great work by both of you.

I am moving house today. No internet access for the next 24 hours or so, hopefully back connected on Saturday morning (Melbourne time).

So we should go all out on every front from now on, and start the golden ages?

Right, we have the tech requirements as well. Shouldn't we wait with conquering Armenia et al until we have more tech?

I think we should just steal Patronage and be done with it so we can start those wonders and get the Taj Mahal golden age. It only decreases our income by about 60-80g, which could easily be stolen back and built with production.

Warfare it is then. I'll hopefully be able to finish my set of turns later tonight.

This was a massive set of turns, war has come to Armenia:

Turn 0:
Patronage stolen from Armenia. We build the Blue Mosque in Hamah (10 turns, need sunni), Shah Mosque in Efshahan (16 turns, needs shia) and Iman Reza shrine in Ahvahz (11 turns, needs shia). War declared against the feeble triple alliance. We raze Teheran, Qazvin,Diayr-i-Bekr, and Kermanshah.

Turn 1: Flintlock researched, next is city planning (6 turns). We raze Manzikert,capture and keep Mosul,raze Mardin,destroying Ak Konyulu and raze Phasis.

Turn 2: Marahgeh razed.

Turn 3: Nakchivan razed.

Turn 4: Dvin captured and kept. Great general born. Orthodoxy sent to Mosul. Ardasil captured and kept as the Safavid city.

Turn 5: Barda and Hadamkert razed.
Turn 6: Armenia collapsed. Baku razed,destroying the Safavids. Ani is captured and razed after a massive battle against the first Armenian then independent stack. We get a relic for our trouble. Orthodoxy sent to Ardabil. Gori captured. . The war is over, guess who won!

Turn 7: Nothing.

Turn 8: City planning researched, civic architecture next (13 turns). Shalimar gardens hurried in Constantinopel. Independent Kniveh razed.

Turn 9: Shalimar garden finished, start a golden age (using scientist, spy and bard).

Turn 10: Blue mosque finished, one of our frigates get to kill a dhow.

To do: We can found Delhi and Suqutra (spelling?) anytime we want. Then it's a matter of killing the KoC.
I guess what remains to do is to fill out the tech tree?