The Immortal Mad Scientist

NihilZero said:

It's unfortunate that Niani isn't coastal, what with the GLH and all. I realise you wanted to get the iron ASAP, but it pains me a little.

Click to expand...

Isn't it? Isn't that coast to the immediate southwest?

Also, this is my first post in one of your threads, Mad Scientist, but I've been a fan of yours for a long time (read all your games at least twice), and I'm really glad to see you back at it!

@Benny, Thanks and Enjoy!

@Nihil, it is coastal.

@ Luciver, er so I should be exploring with a workboat?

Better to be safe than sorry with HC. We don't know exactly where he is, but I would guess he's offshore to the NW, meaning his likely target city would be Niani, Djene, or Kumbi (you should probably find him yourself, though). Walls (for him to bombard with his catapults, which he probably will have given that he has construction), might buy you an extra turn to reinforce whichever city he targets.

Build (or at least pre-build) some soldiers (you'll need them for the barbs anyway), but don't let Huayna DOW you when your army is all the way across the continent capturing barb cities...

When you find him (if Gandhi or Wang Kon founded Buddhism, there's a good chance Huayna might be going after him instead, due to the peace weight difference, but you won't know until you send out your ships!), you'll be better able to asses the situation.

Guess my prediction about not needing trade bait didn't come true. Don't know whether to tell you to go for catapults of your own, to head for currency, or aesthetics for trading for alphabet.

At any rate, definitely time to explore the seas!

You're spiritual...you could had probably drop religion for 5 turns and let HC build up some hate with other hindu leader.
Now it's a bit late since he is already WHEOORN and you have to wait whom he targets.

I would tech probably construction, you have Ivory, so you get 2 good units for the nearing war.

D'oh! You're right about Niani. What a silly fellow I am.

If copper barb city is protected by axemen a few chariots should be enough to get it and instant copper acces and maybe a shot at the colussus? Great game so far btw.

The Immortal Mad: Barbarric and Incan Wars

Mansa did not like what looked over the Horizon. The Arabs got metal casting as fast as the Mali did and the Incans are preparing for war. While a military buildup was needed, Mansa was a man of science and gold and preferred not to wage all out war if attacked. The Incan treated their leader like a King, thus Mansa shall also become king and perhaps diplomacy can soothe the Incan rage, if it is indeed directed at us.

To start off a trade was made with the Portugese.



Joaoa was so happy he gave the Mali priesthood upon request. Mansa directs the Mali to learn Monarchy.

Meanwhile Skirmishers are built at the sacrifice of the navy as the invasion force of the Barbarian lands is prepared.



As the city of Kumblai Selah builds a library a group of three incan galleys are observed



The city is directed to build a wall followed by a skirmisher and the next prepared Skirmishers from the south is sent to the city.

Sure enough the next turn.



The Arabs and Portugese were uninterested at getting involved in this war, thus Mansa had to rely on his skirmishers to hold the vital gem city.

However, this did not halt the Barbarian invasion force we had prepared





The lone axeman was overrun with a mali chariot, the remainder of the army headed due south.

Monarchy was finished and Mansa declared himself King of the Mali



And proceeded to research Construction

Rather than launsch an amphibious assault, Hyuna landed a stack of swords/axes/archers to try and take the walled city. Kublai Selah whipped another Skirmisher just in case



As the Incan soldier broke themselves upon the walled city, the second Barbarian city is captured



The captured gold help fuel the research effort.

With the walled Kublai Sulah safe, a warrior begins exploring the northern Arab lands



And as expected the Incans are off-shore to the Northwest.

After numerous peace attempts it was only after researching construction that Hyuna was willing to talk peace.



Researchw as directed towards the economic techs of Currency followed by Code of Laws. Infrastructure of graneries and libraries continued, chopping the eastern jungles, and looking for further expansion.

During this time Portugal spun off a colony



And we opened borders with the American. We also opened border with Hyuna who apparently found a new respect for the Mali once they acknowledged Mansa as their king.

Another city was founded just south of the capital.



And more settlers are prepared for further expansion while the first Great Person is born



With the completion of Code of Laws, we saved just one turn from settling the western island. However, is Compass really the best tech to research next???



Joao will trade alphabet for Code of Laws however FDR will not.

A view of the land



And cities



SO I think a massive REX phase is due while research is funded on the Great Merchants upcoming trade mission. Research probably should be directed towards LIberalism and we could use a good GP farm. Diplomacy should hold for now.

The Arabs do look like the tech threat (he got the Colossus real fast) so the liberlaims race is on.

Looking for some advice now on how to procced.

Great job mad! I wouldn't worry too much if you lose lib even, just try to get as many cities as possible then you should be able to take down Joao, he tends to be a pushover if you can time things right. If you can get to 15+ cities you shouldn't have too many problems winning the game.

I'd reccommend getting some GPP going in Niani, it's not ideal but at least its well established already. Since you've only got 1 GP so far, the next couple should come reasonably quickly if you switch to caste any time soon.

Was it really the best idea to keep that gold city? I probably would've razed it and settled maybe 1E so the gold could be worked... Were you just concerned that it would take a long time to get a settler out there? It's not too long a trip for a galley...

The Immortal Mad: The Liberalism Quest

With peace obtained with the Incans, the Mali move onto building infrastructure and doing what Mansa is just so good at. TRADES





Yep, who cares that Hyuna just declared war on us, he offers a good trade!

Civil Service is researched as the next Mali city is settled.



Workshops/mines are built here which the seafood is improved. In a few centuries this will be an excellent city.

The Great Merchant trade mission



produced an excellent 1650 gold which drove our science slider up.

Once Civil Service was researched, we checked the tech situation



And traded it for what we could get





Before adopting Bureacracy we researched Monotheism which took 1 turn, then



We also finished off Literature although we have yet to build the National epic, then beelined Liberalism by going

Paper
Education
Philosophy
Liberalism

Mansa continued a slow and steady expansion





Balancing city construction against keeping the tech pace high enough and leveraging the gold treasury towards research.

We find another vassal of Joao



Making Joao a more susceptible target for future wars. But for now Mansa remains committed to peaceful research.

The next leader we met



Offers us no benefit to befriend and we ignored the Native American chief.

We did deviate from the Liberalism Beeline to research 1 turn of Fuedalism to get



We met the last leader



And although a different religion, we have his favorite civic (just life HR for the Incans) so Mansa is in a situation to foster a very strong Diplomatic game ehre.

As we finished Education we checked the tech situation



And since Paper is no longer a Monpoly, decided to have a paper firesale.





And our last city settled this segment



This is actually Hyuna's land mass which may allow us to build up a decent military for later or pose a good target for the Incan's military aspriations. Either way this spot offers a good city location although we do need to road it. Note this is our FIRST landlocked city.

Finally the Mali discover



And we took Prinitng Press for free as our game is focused on cottage building which should kick in once we get corporation and kill the Great Lighthouse bonus.

We saved here to consider what to research next



Gunpowder and perhaps Nationalism next to setup a nice draft situation for a fast military buildup, if for nothing else a decent defence.

A map of our land.



Cities



Quite a few for a peacefulyl played Immortal game. Taht early block certainly paid off.

But the million dollar question, tech trading



Looks like we can make one good education trade right now for engineering and drama. Usually I prefer to also nab guilds in a second trade, but that's where we are at.

So, do we trade education for engineering and follow up gunpowder with chemistry and hope guilds opens up. Or hoarde Education for a bit hoping the Incans will refuse to trade with our Hindu bretheren.

In addition, the AP religion is Buddism which we have in a city. THus perhaps a massive spread of Buddhism to see if I can wrest control of it if we adopt it.

Ideas???

Hindu/Buddhist clash of civilizations?

see if you can beg maps from people prehaps?

If you can keep the diplo situation clear (spreading Buddhism for buildings and AP), amphibious assault looks like a real good way to win this one.

Perhaps you could take over the rest of your second mainland (HC doesn't totally like you anyways, right?) in the meantime. Could you kill HC with Cavs on your way to Fighters/Marines? He might be too close in tech.

The more I think of it, the more I like the idea of spreading the AP religion, adopting it, adopting theocracy while directing eps towards Arabia and hitting Sal very hard with trebs and muskets (perhaps rifles if I get that far). His core is close and his strength is located in a few cities well within striking distance. The biggest question is whether I can mobilize such a force that fast, I prefer to finish off the universities first.

Trebs and muskets? Surely you could get something a bit better to go after him with? What about Curi's? Or cannons plus some frigates? I also would have thought that given the tech situation Joao may be a better target, although Sals cities are quicker to get to like you said...

Save up a bit of gold and buy a map off someone (I picked up your save and played 1 turn to do this). The results might suprise you... (Count your number of civs... you still haven't met someone...)

(About your last installment...) Good job fending off the Huayna invasion. In retrospect, I overestimated the danger posed to you...

1st in number of cities... but 7th in population on the demographics screen? 11 workers for 13 cities (loads of tiles to improve)? [Proceeds to quote DaveMcW's Sig...]

Also, 1 GP (a merchant?!) by 1000 AD? It's possible (though perhaps mostly with Pericles) to get 1 GP by 1000 BC! True... not a lot of good spots for GP farms, but surely 1 of your flood plain / fish cities could have grabbed you 1 or 2 GP! You're in slavery + org religion (excellent for infra-building), but surely you could have spared a few turns in caste / paci to put up some academies by now (what have you really been whipping? Don't see too many angry people around!); you are spiritual after all! Excuse my ranting. Your economy is in very good shape, especially once you get more workers / academies in place... Which brings me to my suggestions for moving foward!

You're in really good shape and you have a lot of cities, but they still need a bit of development. If you go on the offensive now, you will gain more land, but you might fall dangerously behind in tech considering a lack of improvements and smallish cities. If I were you, rather than furiously persuing a military advantage, I would aggressively tech toward communism / Democracy for the Kremlin / rushbuying (you do have stone...) and build up your wealth infrastructure. From there you can launch rifle / cannon wars (or some variant thereon) to your heart's content. Considering that Naval supremacy will be key on this map, perhaps you could even wait for combustion for the speed advantage it will lend you in moving around these snaky continents.

As for trading, what do you need engineering or drama for in the immediate future? Hold on to your edu monopoly; you don't want the AI building oxford anywhere!

The Immortal Mad: Military Knowledge

Mansa Musa looked greedily at the northern Arabian cities, particularly the well spread Hindu holy city. However, saladin was a good friend and the Mali military was under developed. He needed an edge, and different allies.

So the Mali began researching the arts of gunpowder while making a minor trade with the Portugese.



The secrets of Printing Press were held secret and education was not traded relying on Hyuna's unpopularity amongst the hindu allies to prevent any big trades.

The last city settled was in tundra lands to claim the silver and a few cold but commercially powerful lakes.



In addition, civics were altered to better reflect the diversity of cottages throughout the Mali empire rather than the unpopular yet efficient economy of the Timbuktu Bureacrats.

Time passed, gunpowder was discovered, universities were built and whipped, and knowledge of nationalism with the powerful draft was explored. At this time a vital technology becomes available from the Portugese.



Work begins on observatories to watch the skies.

Technology shows



The Mali are still doing well in research, however with noone will to trade guilds and thus banking, these are sefl researched by the Mali.

The next great person is born



And builds an academy in Timbuktu, which is also currently building Oxford. Mansa considers restarting Bueracracy in Timbuktu but opts against it.

Once guilds was started, other leaders were now willing to trade it leading to



A request by the now pleased Incans



Was honored, further building the diplomatic ties, especially with Mansa's long-ranged plans being to side with the Incans and backstab the Arabs.

There was not much more to tell at this point.

The Mali researched banking and constructed banks.

They researched economics for additional trade and replaceable parts for better production.

Finally, research was directed to more important matters.



There are many directions to take with research



Chemistry seams the best military tech for frigates and eventually cannons, however scientific method may be a nice play here for later trades.

Technology



Doing well however not many trade possibilities and perhaps a quick divertion to music (1 turn) could open up military tradition.

The cities



As you can see, some mroe infrastructure is being built. I forsee getting a fast military using slavery and the draft for 5 turns, but still not sure if it's in our best interest to invade Arabia.

Civics at the moment



Notice we only recently adopted free market, a stupid oversight.

So there we have it. Do we try the quick buildup and hit Sal before he gets rifling himself? Or play peacefully and accelerate the space race or diplomacy.

I vote quick buildup and destroy Saladin! This is an interesting game so far...It's nice to see a peaceful REX done so successfully with what I would consider mediocre land...but now the time has come for you to allow your REX to bear fruit and destroy your for now Hindu comrades!

Seriously, though, I think if you can whip and draft up a force quickly enough to take out Sal before he can get to Rifling, go for it. Often a quick war is much easier for achieving any victory (minus culture) than waiting and hoping that your science rate and production will be enough to edge out a rival (in my estimation, HC). The extra land can allow you to up your technological output or your production. I'd go for conquering and THEN diverge to space race, diplomatic, or domination victory.

This game looks solidly winnable at this point, it's just where you want to go with it.

You can sell off Lib for extra

I got involved in another game as Elizabeth running amuck with redcoats over the world. Once the lovely fire haired witch finishes, I will resume the peaceful Mali.