Paradigm Shift

i swear that you have about 8 cities but somehow there are about 8 million pictures of courthouses being built...

Ok, you righted your economy and I am very impressed with Catherine fondness for establish a good law and order system in Russia via courthouses, but I think it is long overdue in army building and Mali Killing. Gte your drunken Russian Generals together and go and take care of buiness!

Dominatrix Cathy - round 6 (half round, to 1040AD or so)

OK, played the first half of the next round. Reached a decision point, and now the forum is down. Anyway, I'll do the write up in Notepad and paste it in for later.

De-Mansa-fication time I think.

Let's recap the domination statistics... I could probably just go for a diplomatic win from this point but domination is the target. Cathy the PR girl will be game #3 I think.



15.6%, Izzy has 17% so will probably need to go to the other continent anyway. This means Izzy may stay alive just for laughs.

So I do this trade with Izzy, I'm not too worried about her beating me to liberalism.



Then I get machinery off Mansa, the fool. He hasn't got Civil Service so only I can make macemen. he can build crossbows, but I have only seen one so far, and he has built no catapults either. Dufus.



I want to make sure my Bananas are safe before I attack though, so I will need some defenders to help out the workers.



This should do for now...



Izzy is still asking a high price to distract Pacal. He needs to go through Izzy to reach me now though, so I'm not bothered about him yet. She needs to be more dominant and attack on her own I think, she hates him.



More courthouse action!





Mansa decides to seal his fate...



I don't think so.

I finish the Hindu missionary from Moscow, macemen from now on until the war is finished (well, maybe some catapults too). Yaroslavl' (gold city) starts on a trireme, in case Mansa decides to attack from the coast. Sury's former capital starts a forge.

Espionage screen, I could do with some spies now, if I go for Mansa's capital they will come in handy to save many turns of bombarding.



Time to be dominated, Mansa

Dominatrix Cathy - round 6 (half round, to 1040AD)

Attacking Mansa cancelled the sugar trade, better do something about that then...



Not very well defended anyway



Sugar! (Ba ba ba ba ba bop); Hey honey honey!



His other border city has minimal defences too. I don't know why he hasn't teched feudalism yet, preferring drama (!) and music (!!?).



He did poison the water in Moscow though. Not a big deal. We have Vodka.



Mansa gets a crossbow to Djenne. Catapults should sort that joker out though.



Speaking of jokers, here comes Pacal, LOL.



No. Why don't you come and get me via Isabella's fertile valley?

Djenne faces a battering... Note I have a small stack of 3 cats and a sword to the northeast, which bombarded over the river.



I lost a couple of cats softening up the defenders. I also lost the sword to the norheast, attacking over the river at good odds. Never mind.

But the outcome is obvious...





Mansa is prepared to talk peace now, I might just try and finish him off though. I can cut off his iron, he has no horses, and he has the Colossus in his capital. I am teching to feudalism anyway (thought I might need some defence before heading for engineering or liberalism), so I could make him my personal slave/vassal.

This is the deal he is offering...

Here's the save. I wanted to carry on but again hit "Power" instead of "Print Screen" which shut my PC down. I have found out how to disable that now

I'm thinking eliminate Mansa anyway. Izzy is still Friendly (she went up to that after my philo trade) despite her being Mansa's buddy.

Hmm, OK, I can't seem to upload a save here...

EDIT: If you are desperate for the save, PM me.

I say Kill MM. You will have more land and a happy Isabella. Consolidate, tech, build infrastructure. Keep her happy, DoW on Pacal is she wants you to. Once you have a tech edge in military and a significant forse, backstab Isabella while she's at Pacal's throat.

Nicely played after taking so long to take out Surymanan.

I think I should finish Mansa too.

His iron is in a very accessible place, once I have feudalism I could tech guilds and finish him off with Knights. I don't know where his third city is though. I'm not afraid of Trebs in the field despite his extra road movement.

I think I need to capture the Colossus at least, his other city on the coast is the confucian holy city too. May need more catapults for that though. I have a spy built now and another on the way.

I can easily backstab Izzy at Cossacks if I want to.

Funny! Mansa begging for civilservice just before you Declare war on him.

Nicley played, you must have layed off the vodka that round. I second finishing off mansa, those cities of his sound very tempting.

I'm not sure how to deal with the isabella/pacal situation after mansa is wiped. Knowing isabella though it should only be a matter of time before she declares on pacal herself, which in the mean time gives you time to focus on your beefing up you economy post mansa!

Upload is working again now, here's the 1040AD save.

OK, I have played another round. I'll upload the screenies and write my report. Mansa finally got around to teching feudalism after music (getting the Great Artist), I think he finally realised longbows are better during war than banjos. Not much better, but nevertheless

Dominatrix Cathy - round 7 (to 1120AD)

Any old iron? Mansa's iron. Here is my pillaging stack, ready to go for his iron. He won't be able to build any more crossbows and pikes then, he will be an ex-Mansa.



Tech situation, engineering would be nice, but whatever.



I keep in Izzy's good books, doing this trade.



Horse archer moves to the hill, he'll be able to pilage the iron next turn. I'd better help out with a couple of axes though since Mansa has a crossbow and a sword nearby.



Mansa's capital looks ripe for plucking.



And a GP is due next turn as well, hope it's an engineer, I'll whip an aqueduct and build the hanging gardens in that case. If I get a scientist I will tech paper and partially bulb education.



Feudalism is in.



Mansa's crossbow kills my woodsman axe in the forest. Now that is cheeky.



I have a cover promoted mace though, fairly good odds, lets get some XP (fingers crossed).



I win that battle, and I can move the mace back to the city as well to heal.

I may as well try and take his other city without siege.



Mansa has his iron pillaged, game over.



Meanwhile, another Great General pops up in Moscow. We got a Great Scientist from here too, not an Engineer, so paper->bulb education it is. The Great General is settled in Moscow, it's the Heroic Epic city.



The National Epic and a granary have been built in St. Petes, time for a forge for a nice engineer slot. Still no courthouse here!!!



I decide to attack at low odds, and win.



To be continued...

Dominatrix Cathy - round 7 (to 1120AD) part 2

Mansa sinks my entire navy (1 galley) with a trireme that he must have whipped. He must pay for that! EDIT: Hanging Gardens have been built as well, never mind.



I have a look if Izzy will take feudalism off me for declaring war on Pacal (or "Mr. Tripe", as they say in Hungarian [I learnt that pacal is Hungarian for tripe from one of our Hungarian posters]).



But... it looks like she is about to DoW him anyway. About time! They do say women take ages to get ready.

A bit more beating on Mansa's other city.



Mansa's counter attack is pretty lame, one sword. No problems.



I decide to whip the forge at St. Petes, I'll build a courthouse next.



Cathy has a new wig delivered. It is blonde though, so she has a blonde moment.







I lose that battle, and Mansa gets a great general out of it.

Well I have some maces on the way anyway, and see a chance to grab another worker.



*Gratuitous courthouse building screenshot at St. pete's removed*. Running an engineer there thanks to the new forge, it will be done in 12 turns, enabling a spy specialist as well.

Mansa has longbows now, but with my catapults I should be able to take his capital.



Mansa can tell he is losing, he is offering a tech for peace now. I carry on the offensive...



Paper is done, I don't like to lightbulb it because it is so cheap. Education next, I will bulb that with my spare GS.



I built the Moai Statues in Novgorod. it is a production only city really so I felt it would benefit the most, plus, it has no Ocean tiles so each coast is worth 2 commerce, making them good tiles to work. I start on a longbowman.



To be continued...

Dominatrix Cathy - round 7 (to 1120AD), part 3

Bulbing education shaves off 13 turns. Nice.



Capital is pretty much improved as I intended now, a forge will be handy too.



Angkor Thom could do with a library, we will be building universities to enable Oxford soon.



Both Pacal and Mansa adopt vassalage. Probably too late for Mansa, and Pacal is about to be Dow'd by Izzy I think.



The defences are bombarded at Mansa's capital, no need for my spies, they are too slow without engineering



I lose a few cats but they just get better and better with the collateral damage



So it is just a case of mopping up in the end



I use my Great General medic to deliver the coup de grace. She (for it is Joan of Arc herself, albeit with a beard) is closest to 26xp for West Point later.



Let's see you tech really fast now, Mansa.



Nice, Stonehenge and the Colossus, and an academy too. He seems to have a free scientist specialist as well, I have no idea how that came about, must be a random event?



My maces arrive at Mansa's Southern city



I win that battle, that city will fall soon. If I capture it I will raze it I think, it is too close to the sugar city.

Razing it will mean Mansa won't be a happy bunny if he capitulates to me though, is he prepared to throw in the towel?



He is. I stopped playing there.

I think I should take the capitulation, then I can focus on dogpiling Pacal when Izzy declares on him. Drama is a nice sweetener to the deal as well. Mansa is still cautious with me even with the war, so it shouldn't be hard to get him friendly enough to trade techs.

I think that round (and the previous one) went rather well anyway.

Here's the save, remember it uses the HOF mod.

If you accept his Captiulation, won't you have to deal with Timbuktu and Krumbi Salad going going into revolt every 10 or 20 turns for the next millenium? Destroying Niani and Walata would take most of the culture pressure off of his ex capital and his ex sugar city, even though MM won't be too happy about it. On the other hand, you do have to prevent him from captiulating to Izzy, which would be inconvenient.

I don't think cultural pressure will be too bad, the city centres are out of the cultural radius of his other cities, I have stonehenge now, and I'm creative.

I'm not sure whether he will vassal to Izzy, she is friendly with me wouldn't that mean she has to declare war? I'm a bit unsure about that though

Alternatively, I could just finish him off, I only have 3 or 4 catapults left now I think, but he only has 20-40% culture tops in his other cities. It depends if he spams alot of longbows.

ParadigmShifter said:

I'm not sure whether he will vassal to Izzy, she is friendly with me wouldn't that mean she has to declare war? I'm a bit unsure about that though

Click to expand...

I think if mansa were to become lizzies vassel it would just stop the war. I still think its advisable to finish off mansa for good.

Another good round, your on a roll!

If he becomes my vassal I'll probably be able to get engineering and compass (he's researching that now) off him later though, saving alot of time.

I'm still aiming for astronomy off liberalism, so I need compass and optics. Galleons will make killing Pacal alot quicker too.

EDIT: Although Great Scientists will bulb compass and optics, and I should get a few of them soonish.

I think it's better to just take him out fully. With his capital down, he has only one good tech/building center. I think it would be better to grab Gao for yourself. No opinion on the razing of anything, but I just don't see the long term benefit of a vassal that you'll never get rid of being a deadweight.

Yeah, Gao looks pretty tempting I have to admit.

I'd go ahead and finish Mansa before turning towards Pacal.
Another reason to finish Mansa: "We yearn to rejoin our motherland" unhappiness. Hate that..