Nobles' Club XLII: Qin Shi Huang of China

I had to stop at 1530 BC. My tech path was rather random (and I can't even remember in what order I did everything) BUT the one thing I did that I believe was wise was tech agriculture first. Build order was worker->warrior (to let the city grow)->settler->I can't remember the rest. I sent my starting warrior south through the mountain pass (good gravy I've never seen so many mountains before) then west, and found WVO. Since his starting warrior was hanging about I declared war, waltzed in and razed his city. A bit of AI weirdness occurred here; my warrior was one space from his unguarded city (I was on a forested tile), and his own warrior was on the other side of my warrior (sandwich style). Thus, I would assume the logical thing would be a desperation attack on my warrior, regardless of the 50% bonus. Actually, the warrior ran off into the fog. Oh well, one AI down...and I'm not sure how many more to go.

After WVO i went back up north, meeting several ai on the way...brennus, monty (oh what fun), napoleon (who founded Buddhism), joao II, suleiman, and hatty (there may have been more...but I don't remember....).

So, as it stands, I have my capital (settled in place) that has built GW and Oracle (took monarchy as free tech) using chopping. I have to other cities...one due west (just south of that stone), and one south-east (just north-east of the marble). I'm not sure where my other cities are going to go but I know I want those elephants north-west and those other resources north-east. I'm discovering IW to clear out those bloody jungles next to the stone.

I know this is rambling and long (I'm new to this), but are there any blatant errors I've made? Any tips from some of the more experienced players?

Talk about a wonder spam map. I popped Mysticism from a hut and rolled from there. Tons of trees and Stone and Marble, combined with the Pavilion and Protective Archers made me push culture. I built 15 World Wonders (!!) including Henge, the Library, GW, Mids, Parthenon, Stat of Zeus, UniSankore, Spiral Min and the Taj.

Diplo was tough. Monty and Willem founded the two early religions, but Willem got dog-piled from the start and spent the whole game as an outcast. I opened borders with everyone to get religions in, then canceled with Willem at Monte's request and spread them around internally. I ended up founding Christianity (via bulb for the Sistine Chapel) and Islam (DR for the hell of it). All told, I had all 6 religions in my main 3 cities, with Temples and Chapels to boot. I think this must have been the idea, because I really neglected my military to push culture, but a few well placed border cities at choke points between the mountains let me get away with very few units past Archers and Longbows. I got declared on a few times but suffered very few casualties and never lost a city. I ended up with a whopping 21 GG points by the end of the game.

All in all, fairly easy game. Map was incredibly simple for a culture victory if you know how to play it, between Pangaea spreading of all the religions and the incredible mountain natural defenses.

Thanks for hosting dalamb!

You might want to post a few screens on the way to help people visualize and know the exacts on what position you're in and the like. Seems like you're doing very well though, especially with the opportunity to knock out Willem early. He's a real main in my game. As for a random tech path, that isn't bad unless it's completely erratic. It makes the game much more fun when you improvise.

Settled in place, worker warrior warrior worker settler. For some reason I found myself in a storm of barbarians and I lost my 2 first warriors and had to replace them. For this reason I decided to start making the great wall (which pops at 2000BC) while fog busting south and north.

I got two great spies from the wall, one I settle in a portugaise city for 3000 EPs, and I manage to steal 6+ technologies through the game. And another I settle on a willem city for the same reason, I also get 3-4 techs from him through the game.

[imagine a great wall screenshot here]

Then my favorite wonder :



I expand : 1) east on the stone, then 2) north on the silk/rice/metal/2x sugar then 3) south on the marble in a way to block south and west. Screenshot :



We will never know what was in that mysterious hut on the mountains (too bad I left my pet griffon at home that day) :



I get a handful of good wonders, the great library, the parthenon, status of zeus (since i had ivory and all), the mausoleum of maussollos, the hagia sophia, sistine chapel... probably a mistake as I should have been more agressive with units earlier instead of building wonders.

Long story short I choose the portugaise and willem as allies, and to an extent mehmed. I plan to attack north and start massing troops, around this time muza asks me to cancel trade with matty and I do so (both matty and napoleon shared buddhism so I figure I'll have to fight her too anyway). At the same time I close borders, napoleon DoW me and march with a huge stack of cavalery. No problem I defend at my north city and crush him with my UU, wave after wave.

I have no more land for expansion, so it is time to go on the offense, but matty won't talk to me -> I can't open borders. As a result i have to DoW her (had enough power to handle both), and as I do that both montezuma and the celts DoW me in the next 10 turns. I keep marching while sending some troops to defend at the choque point between the mountains east. (The fort I built there will come in handy.)

I manage to do some damage to matty but she vassalises to napoleon instead of me. I keep marching on her until she is completely dead (why won't she be reasonable?), then I take 2 french cities... Napoleopn refuses to surrender, but then he immidiately vassalizes himself to mehmed. This is bad as I needed his lands to be able to fight montezuma and the celts. Mehmed grabbed 2 of matty's cities near the french borders.

I decide then to go into a rebuilding phase for my cities and the ones I captured and prepare for a war on mehmed/napoleon. It is around this time that willem decides out of the blue without even being attacked or in a war to surrender to mehmed. Obviously I have no plans to fight all 3 of them as between them they have near 3.5 my power and surround me on 3 fronts. + they have a tech lead on military.

Montezuma on the other side has seriously pounded the portugaise and he vassaled the celts who keep feeding him techs. (Another voluntary vassalage? come on...)

A little fed up to do all the fighting on matty and napoleon and mehmed all the collecting, and also frustrated at the vassalage system and not seeing how I can still win (as Willem is going culture and I doubt I can catch up on tech and stop him in time), I give up. Momentarily as it turns out.

I came back and decided.. what the hell I'll just destroy montezuma and the celts for my trouble... who cares if I win.

Thanks to my good relations to the portugaise, they ask me for vassalage (they are fighting zuma's rifles with medieval cavalry, but at least I get to have a pet to boss around too... useless ingame but good for morale!)

An uphill and LONG battle with my rifles/etc againt montezuma's tanks/etc and my useless portugaise vassal later, I manage to take 4 of montezuma's cities and capitulate him. At that point I have tanks and I start pushing the celts into the ocean. I take all their cities on the continent and luckily they capitulate after the last city and I didn't have to make ships to pay a visit to their island.

At that point things are looking much better, but still desperate. Willem is ~30 turns from a cultural victory, less than 100 turns left on the game, and mehmed&ass still have a tech lead on me. In all cases, my 3 vassals vote me into leading the UN :



After a short phase of troops rebuilding and healing, I arrive just in time to DOW Willem/nappy/mehmed and kill one of the legendary cities. I used the maximum peace time I could get to rebuild, and thus I was at the doors of the city 3 turns away from the deadline :



The hard part was actually to have a big enough stack to attack while also leaving troops to defend my territory on 3 fronts. I manage to take a couple of Willem's cities, and as he was a voluntary vassal he decides to break away from mehmed, and a few turns after he vassals himself to me just as I prepare to walk into his capital.

Next target : Mehmed. At this point I did catch up on tech from trading with my vassals, and from something i rarely even find a use for or build... the internet! :



so I am making modern armor and I stopped research a while ago so I have money to upgrade all my tanks and SAM to more recent units. My biggest stack meets his huge stack south and beat it (but in serious need of healing), then I start taking his south cities up from willems territory, while my troops defending north and east converge to do the same downward as he is now on the defensive... I even have enough for a little push on the french. Mehmed loses 5 cities in 10 turns and there is nothing to stop me at this point.. I just need 5% more land to get a domination victory, but before that I secure a UN win :








Also check my war city with 8 settled generals, it makes brand new modern armor with 4 free level ups, meaning +40% power from Combat IV (who said specialization was for insects again?) :

Didn't take as many screenshots as I should have I guess, but I'll do some storytelling to cover it instead

Settled in place and quickly popped 2 huts which both gave me scouts. Before they were eaten by bears and other dangerous animals, I scouted around my starting position and found that I was in the middle of a bunch of mountains. Stone and marble nearby and easily defensible mountain passes made me tech masonry first while building a settler.

Long story short I started pumping out wonders, chopped the great wall while making a few warriors to scout and letting my city grow, then whipped out a few settlers/workers to settle near the stone/marble.

Skip to the end if you don't want to read my long winded tale of the game

Situation at 25AD


Poor diplomacy on my part got me in to a war soon after this point, first with Mehmed, then Montezuma after refusing some of his demands. I choked up Mehmed and got peace just a few turns after Montezuma attacked, but by that time I'd been pumping out units steadily and had a force of axemen/swordsmen/chariots (thanks to the Dutch for supplying me with horses). Took his first few cities fairly easily as they were small and had no defenses to tear through. Teched machinery and civil service during the war and came at him with macemen/cho-ko-nus and a few catapults once I had them mustered. France proceeded to stab me in the back and declare while my troops were pushing monty back down the coast, but I managed to hold him off and got peace a while after, freeing up a second force to finish montezuma.

With monty gone my tech sped up quite a bit, and I quickly settled in to build up my infrastructure and get my economy back online. Peace was fleeting however, as France struck again around the turn of the millennia, shortly after montezuma was wrapped up. This time he had a vassal, Egypt, by his side as well. By now I had gunpowder and I pumped out muskets/macemen to hold them off, only to be attacked by Mehmed again a few turns later. I was able to redirect the veterans of the aztec war to stem to flow of French and Egyptian soldiers to the north, while fresh troops shoved Mehmed back through the mountain pass to the south, blocking his access to my territory. Mehmed quickly paid for peace as I sat outside his city gates, and I was able to move on the offensive and push north in to France.

Among all of my enemies, a friend arrived. Willem van Oranje came from the south and offered himself as a vassal to my mighty empire, for he saw that his then peaceful nation of scientists was at risk of hostile takeover if they were to press south in to his lands. With his aid, France fell swiftly, especially under the new rifling technique that had been employed by the Chinese. Cavalry, riflemen, and catapults pushed north and crushed the French, until they too wished to hide under the wing of my great empire. With just 3 cities far to the northeast, I accepted them as a vassal. Egypt had declared itself a free nation once again, but soon found that they had chosen the wrong side in the first place. They were not spared, and the Egyptian lands were split up by the Dutch and the Chinese.

With peace at hand at last, what were the troops meant to do? This highly modern force of soldiers soon grew restless and unruly, so it was time to fight a war on my terms for once. The Ottomans had always been the opportunists, even at my expense, and now they had to pay for their past deeds. A force of newly trained infantry and cannons were gathered in the north, and another in the southern mountain pass. Four Ottoman cities fell, 2 to the Dutch and 2 to the Chinese. Another vassal to look after, though none were so noble as my eternal ally and protectorate, Willem van Oranje.

Domination was close at hand, with my empire spanning to every side of the vast land mass we called home. A cultural boom took place, as science was put out of the minds of the people, and our borders filled every inch of the land under my control. It soon became clear, however, that one last area must be conquered to truly become a master of the world. A small pirate island to the east had been spotted by my neighbors the Portuguese, and their colony's leader of the northern island, George Washington. Dutch and Chinese troops sailed with all haste to claim this southern island, and they found it poorly defended and disorganized. Falling easily under our might, the island soon became colonized and victory was at hand.





My first win on noble, and my first domination victory Had a blast playing this, I really improved my management skills. Every worker action controlled until the 1900s made this game take quite a while I thought I was done for when Napoleon attacked with most of my troops in monty's area, but I was close to gunpowder and the muskets topped what he had at the time (knights/elephants/longbowmen mainly, I had to play defensive). The late game was a steamroll as my production ramped up with wind and water mills with electricity.

Started this out thinking I'd go for a cultural win with wonder spamming (I did get a lot of them, between making early ones and capturing some). Definitely had more fun going for domination, as I'd never won a domination victory.


I'd love comments (or questions, anything that might lead to an improvement). I probably left out quite a bit of info that might help other people give suggestions.

So now at 110 BC. Since 1530 BC I've only built two cities. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but so far so good. I made a mistake previously, it wasn't suleiman, rather it was mehmed. Anyways, Joao is turning into a tech monster (he offered open borders before i was even thinking about discovering writing), and Napoleon is setting himself up to be a land hog.

I nabbed CoL before everyone and already have two other nations in confucianism. Thanks to the oracle I had a GP ready and built the shrine right away. Frustratingly the holy city ended up being the one i wanted to have for a military city. Once I had IW I found the Iron just south and built a city to get it. My other city was built up north on the elephant farthest north-east. As soon as iron was hooked up I started building swordsmen (and a few axe and spear as stack defenders) and set out for Mehmed. To date, I've taken two cities of his relatively easily (three defenders each city...I lost approx. four units per city), and there are, I believe, three more to go.


Diplo:


Techs:


Land overview:


So...after mehmed I think i'm going to try to get my UU involved in a war against maybe someone like napoleon just to make sure he doesn't get TOO strong (he's already the strongest, I believe). Hatty's been doing nada so I presume that eventually Napoleon will make her a vassal...which would be bad.

just a note for the land overview; napoleon's city Bactrian was taken from barbs...his capital is waaaay up north, but he had borders close to mine before taking the barb city.

Settled in place, opened with a worker first and bronzeworking...

1st hut popped "The Wheel" 2nd hut popped "Warrior instadeath!"




He died!

After Bronze came in teched... Pottery > Mysticism > Masonry > Ironworking

and built in the capital... > Warrior > Warrior > Worker > Settler > Stonehenge > Worker

Couldn't resist atleast 1 wonder met 5 of the 7 AI.

Chinese lands so far...




Plus some tasty looking lands in the far North...




Looking at the land surounding the capital Ironworking & Calander are probably priorities. I'll probably go for settling production cities exclusivley and just build wealth, Research or units as and when required.

Yeah I know VERY late stopping point for first report but game just kind of kept speeding up mostly cuz I been in CONSTANT war since BC's.

Starting out I just settled in place, expored the landmass met the ai's and also found this:



Hehe moutain top goodie hut :/

Now I WAS TRYING to be peaceful but



EVERYBODY



And their dog



Keeps poking me GRRRRR

ESPECIALLY Jao the lil dillhole kept making me demands which of COURSE I kept refusing until he finally DoW's on me. But I wasnt TOO worried cuz all th emountains round me made for nice chockpoints so it was like my whole empire one big fortress.

Oh and one other thing helped out teensy bit too. I had mids done and also got HG done and when I did oracle I took mc as freebie. And like I hoped:



A GE in BC's which means:



BC era Nunchuks

Fortunately for Jao I didnt IMEDIATELY go out on nunchuck rampage on him. Since EVERYBODY knows how I always try to play peaceful when I can. So I let him just suicde units at my choke point. ALong with Monty who Joins in of course and Jaos lapdog Brennis and then Willie from time to time.

But after a 1000 years or so a gal can only take so much so I send out a stack and EVENTUALLY



Jao caps. I let the lil dillhole have ONE city cuz A) its rinky dink and out in boondocks and B) cuz it doesnt have judaism which is AP religion so as long as it stays that way I can avoid diplo win vote.

And tha is basically where I am at this point in game. After hundreds of turns with war with Jao I have to clean up his lands. Get my tech rate back up and then see what to do next.

Here is my empire at this point:



ANd Jaos old lands which now my lands:



Brennis also left me a cpl of cities in his will too hehe.

Tech sitch:



Im behind Nappy who has astro on me but otherwise it not too dismal.

Demos:



Am keeping in most of the categories here too.

Diplo sitch:



Im on pretty decent trems with my fellow jewish civs. Unfortuantely BOTH Nappy and Meh LOVE to backstab so that doesnt make me safe. Nappy been in wheooh for a LONG time and I am HOPING he is going to go after Monty or something.

Monty is in wheooh mode to but that not as big a deal cuz I am thinking he is next. Not only has he been a dillhole picking on me ALL game but my economy needs help and he has holy city for second largest religion on map AND spiral minoret. So plan at this point is to get him to leave me those in his will then see if he doesnt slip and fall on some maces. (Im kinda think that gonna happen REAL soon too hehe.)

After that plan is to kill off willy and then see where that leaves me and decide to either try for culture or just go after Meh or Nappy for a dom win. Really its to decide whether to kill off nappy for the dom win since once willy and monty all nice and dead. Only choices will be meh or Nappy and his vassal hattie. Im thinking if I dow on one the other will get bribed in against me. And Nappy may be tuffer target but with chokepoints between me and meh's empire I can hold him off easy while focusing most of my army on Nappy. (And while it may SEEM like Im kinda making longrange war plans peaceful culture win STILL an option cuz I AM a sweet peaceful builder type and my curriasors and maces will kill ANY civ who says otherwise )

ANd really AI's have been FORCING war on me. But one funny thing about it is with killing so MANY in my lands while owning GW I got a TON of GG's 8 so far. 5 have been settled but my army is being led by trio of generals:



Larry



Moe



And Curly

Then been doing a very nice job so far so hopefully they will help me kill enuff people so I can have my nice peaceful game. Wish me luck

I still feel rather discouraged, as I have no clue where science is going to come from, with very limited cottage locations, but at least up until the medieval era, I guess even building research might work.

Dont get too discouraged. I dont really like hilly maps much either and used to have very hard time with em. Its true it can be diff getting an economy going but it kinda same dealio with heavy water maps. It requires some adjustments that the human player is better at dealing with than the ai so it can an advantage against the ai's.