Monarch Student VII - Mao Zedong

techs: ah - myst (hut) - masonry - wheel - pottery - writing - fishing - alpha - IW - sailing - currency - math (stolen) - CoL - hunting and meditation (Joao) - poly (Bis) - priesthood (gift from Joao) - archery (stolen)

4000 - settled in place

3825 - hut 75 gold

3800 - first AI is Joao

3650 - hostile hut

3625 - warrior dead to hostile villagers

3175 - mysticism from hut

2600 - Shangai, future Moai. Now I'm asking myself why I didn't settle 1 W. Oh well:



2200 - GW done:



1800 - Guangzhou:



1475 - Nanjing, to block southern land for two extra cities:



410 - Mehmed shows himself via workboat.

395 - GSpy settled.

350 - Lame event with Joao:



305 - Pointy hat Bismarck is the next AI.

155 - Mathematics stolen from Joao.

125 - Convert to Christianity on Joao's demand. He's pleased now, but I'm Mehmed's worst enemy.

80 - Priesthood succesfully begged from Joao. Thanks.

5 - Archery stolen from Joao.


Empire at 10 AD, with future city plan. I think I'll use the NE clam/cow city as a ghetto GP farm:







Techs:



Diplo:



I'm focusing my EPoints on Joao now, to steal more techs.

Settled in place, was deliberating a couple moves actually, like north for hammers or whatever but I just plopped down ultimately.

At first I play like Qin



I settle the NW copper site, then work to block Joao.



Like so.



Confucianism



I spread it to Joao and I get into HR shortly after to get him to pleased. I'd been building archers to defend myself prior to that but he never went for it. Not a lot of room but I will kill Joao after milking the tech trades from him.

I just backfilled more cities, meandered toward lib and got it.



Focus some EP on Joao, crank some cuirassers from workshop hammers. He goes the military science route. Did you guys know? Even grenadiers kind of suck vs cuirassers if you use spies to kill D.





No surprise caps



I take all his mainland cities. Joao was actually pretty tech-strong since I trade whored with him at friendly, and he took 1 of khan's cities and settled 2 cities on a tiny island. I took peace, and instantly resumed trade cheese



I refuse a demand from GK because I intend to attack him. I was a little surprised at his idiocy.





That...still has all his units on it . He had a lone galleon flee after everything else was sunk.

I head his way, and see his navy in port. Of course I launch an amphibious attack then.



After doing that I drop the survivors into the city and try to heal there. GK slams a couple sets of units there but I still had my GG cavalry in the group too, and we all know how double digit protective infantry fare against pre-industrial troops...

I was mounting another invasion on him, but to my surprise...



Ok. Louis was headed culture, but not too close yet. I decided since Toku attacked and capped bismark that I'd go for toku, who was close to but lacking assembly line. I kill a lot of units early in the war:



But even after tremendous headway, the ugly bull shift cap mechanics rear their head:



Like hell you are moron, die.





After Biz caps, toku finally does. It was tempting to finish him off, but domination would have been a pain against advanced louis (though I could have insta-burnt his coastal culture crap) or mehmed. Mehmed had built the UN, but as you can see it didn't matter who did.

You're not blocking/settling enough cities again . The copper city makes sense, but why not block more land against one of the game's fastest REX guys with cities 3 and 4? On normal with auto workers I was able to do it, so I'm guessing it would be easier on epic with micro if you prioritized it!

I won't be surprised if a lot of players just axe him off the map, which is also viable.

Decided to settle in place, teched AH->BW->Wheel. My warrior explores to the west and finds this guy before the first border pop.

I decide right then that I'm probably going to axe rush, since I don't feel like trying to out-REX Joao. Meanwhile, where is/are his scouting unit(s)? I took a goody hut from right next to him and went on to take all the others on the continent (I assume, since I never saw him exploring around) for one scout and a total of 304 gold.

I settle 上海 next to the copper, and it's going to work Beijing's cows at least for the time being since Beijing has plenty of farmable land.


After that, I just get another worker or two and chop/whip up some axes. This should get us started.

中国加油！ Think I caught him by surprise?

Of course he whips up another archer the next turn, but it doesn't matter. I attack across the river, and my first axe actually defeats the fortified archer while my second loses to the new archer, and the third takes the city.

I decided to raze it because I wanted it 1N to work the gold and make room for another eventual city to the south. But I still get two workers for my trouble by cutting off their retreat (they had been pasturing the cows). 前进 to Lisbon!

I find three archers defending Lisbon and just smash right through them. On the same turn, the single axeman I had sent to scout the city to the north finds it also defended by a single archer so he attacks at ~60% odds and wins. Joao 死了. That was about the easiest axe rush ever. What had he been doing all this time?

So now with the continent to myself, it's time to REX. Rushing was a little risky because I didn't know if that was going to leave me isolated, but thankfully I meet a work boat pretty soon.

Not that I'm ever happy to see Mehmed, but at least I know that the land I can see to the west leads somewhere. Pretty soon after that I meet Tokugawa, and he settles the land I can see, so I guess he's my closest neighbor. He founds Confucianism and it spreads to me, so I adopt it even though it pisses off Mehmed because I don't think I've ever tried to get Toku friendly, so that could be interesting, if not the optimal way to play. He's a terrible trading partner, so my tech situation is pretty bad. Here's my empire at 10 AD:
North

And South

9 cities with room for two or three more. Happiness is an issue, and looking at it, I think I really should be teching Monarchy right now instead of Mathematics. I also have a small barb galley problem that needs addressing. I'd love a more useful trait than Protective about now (and my UU isn't likely to see any action), but overall I like my situation. I've got my own big continent but I'm not isolated, and I'm hoping Mehmed and Toku will bang heads while I peacefully tech for the next dozen centuries or so. I've gotten Toku to pleased and open borders, so I should get a work boat through his territory and see if there's anyone else over there, because I highly doubt he has open borders with anyone but me. 不错。

This round was all about sacrificing the present for the future.

I settled in place, I'm not crazy about the starting location, but it isn't terrible. My warrior scouted around, picking up hunting and some gold from huts. He revealed that we're on a relatively small island with one of the best REXers in the game, that's going to get old fast.

I researched AH and BW, then got a settler out to claim the north west copper. Joao has to go, and fast, so I settled with copper in the first ring. Then I started pumping out axes. By the time I was ready to go around 1500 BC, Joao had settled 2 cities, although they were lightly guarded.

I had a stack of 4 axes to take his southern city, and my main stack of 10 axes and some warriors to take his northern city on the way to the capital. His southern city was in a good location, guarded by 2 archers. I took it with no losses, but it autorazed. I sent those axes up to the meeting place at the capital. The northern city was guarded by a single archer and in a crappy location, so I razed it with no losses as well.

The combination of extra targets and slow axes led to a very well defended capital. By the time my entire stack got there Joao had whipped a wall and had 6 or 7 archers. Thankfully my axes got the job done. I had extremely good luck for the entire war, losing nothing on the first 2 cities, and whenever I didn't kill an archer I dropped him to very little health. Anyway, no more Joao, so I get the island to myself.



His capital is an excellent GP farm with super corn and 2 seafood. Too bad he didn't build any wonders with his stone.

Very soon after that I got the extra health random event. I contemplated not taking it since we're already expansive, and a reduced happy cap would really hurt rebuilding after a rush, but I took it. I figure you can't pass on that event when you get it. Unfortunately, this event really hurts short term.
I struggled along for a while, getting a few more settlers out and killing some barbs.

Here's my situation at 10 AD, the herbalist unhappiness faded a few turns ago, so I'm getting back to full strength:



There is a lot of cottage-able land there, Guangzhou and Beijing especially. Shanghai was just to get copper, but the gold makes it valuable short term.

And the Southern lands:



Mehmed sneaked a settler in there the same turn that I settled Nanjing. He can have that marginal city as long as I get the marble. I think its safe because of the last game I played. I couldn't take a resource in the same position with Zara against a non-creative civ thanks to the inner ring mechanics.

The barbs settled Chinook perfectly, so I'll get another axe or 2 down there to take it before Mehmed beats me to an actually good location. Besides that, I see 2 more city sites, 1E of the bottom silk, and north east of Beijing claiming the 2 food outside the capitals BFC.

Recovering after the initial expansion is my biggest weakness, so the next 1000 years will be a big test of my skill, with my economy extra bad at 10 AD. Techs are very bad as expected, but that's less concerning. I can get a few with aesthetics. Then hopefully I can pull even with philo and education, and then blow by the AI's with extra land.

Mehmed and Toku are Confucian, but not the founder, which means that there is another AI in work boat range. This also most likely means that the 3 early religions were founded far away. Hopefully we get some religious wars over there, since I predict a Confucian lovefest until steel on this side.

First thing I did was get the marble hooked up as I was building a lot of wonders. The wonder pace of this game is incredibly slow, I doubt there are any industrious civs. I got the ToA, Parthenon, the GLH, the GLib and I think something else after 400 AD without even trying for them. That was the good news, the bad news is that Toku is a worthless waste of space.

As of 1000 AD I still haven't gotten Confucianism spread to me, or met anyone besides Mehmed and Toku. I can't go searching myself because Toku has me blocked off, and I can't open borders without getting his religion first. I'm really praying for the religion to spread, I have trade routes with Mehmed, so I figure its only a matter of time, any religious civic would be a big boost. That combined with Mehmed being the tech leader (I couldn't trade anything until civil service) has basically made this an isolated start. Thankfully, he's researching everything other than the lib line, so unless there is a less advanced civ beelining it, I should be able to get it, and take the most expensive tech that Mehmed doesn't have and get to parity.

As far as righting the economy, I took it down a little farther by getting the cities I outlined before. The wonders helped my economy out a lot. Closing borders with Mehmed might cut my research in half off of TRE alone. I was going to use my first GS for philo, but since everyone had it already, I built an academy. I got a great merchant in my GS farm at ~3% thanks to the GLH, but I settled him for some needed gold, letting me run the slider higher. My next 2 GS's bulbed philo and most of education right before I stopped. CoL and currency helped my economy, but civil service made the biggest splash. I was able to trade that for HR, calendar, and some gold. Two techs that I should have gotten a long time ago, but this gets rid of my happiness problems, and Bureaucracy is a huge boost.

Here's the tech situation, I'm pretty far behind, but not so hopeless that liberalism can't save me. A monopoly on paper is good news.



Toku and Mehmed are both messing with me. They've been in and out of WHEOOH 3 or 4 times each. I'm hoping its another civ somewhere, since either could run me over easily. I got to pleased with Mehmed thanks to a food shortage random event, but he is still preparing on someone from before that. Again, getting Confucianism would solve everything. Sadly the window for using CKN's is long gone, but I think I'm going to kill Toku one way or another strictly out of spite. Hopefully I can get a win here.

The axe rush is probably optimal strategy here, even too easy. It's also possible to block the whole southern part from Joao by one city. The AIs don't settle behind your borders even if you open borders until later by galleys.





Blocking left Joao to play three city challenge. Mehmed is in WHEOOHRN and it's very likely me.

My workboat explores west and finds Bismark in 100 AD, and at the risk of angering my friend Tokugawa, I make a couple of trades.

Adding Hunting or Monotheism would have been more fair, but whatever, I really needed Monarchy. I also get a happiness resource from him (Spices for Gold.)

No negative diplo from Toku from that (yet), but I notice that Mehmed now has something on his hands. He likes me the least, but I'm not concerned, because with Toku in the way he can't reach me until Astronomy (and when has the AI ever landed a meaningful force with Galleys anyway?).

Later, I make another uneven trade with Bismarck, but Calendar lets me hook up dye and silk. I build the Parthenon and Great Library around this time, and my research is starting to pick up.


685 AD- Philosophy nets me Taoism, and I make the switch to Pacifism.


In 760 I get a visit from Mehmed.

Oh no, really? Well come back when you have more than one, not to mention a way to get them here.

Shortly after that in 790, Tokugawa declares on Bismarck. Pretty soon he asks me to cancel my deals, and I go along with that because I've decided to be Toku's friend this game.

In 820 I get the Horse Whispering quest, which requires 7 stables (I have 0).

In 835 I fail the Horse Whispering quest.

Sometime around here I get a Great Artist from Music and start the Sistine Chapel. I almost never go for a cultural victory, but it certainly seems like an option here with my own continent and China's UB. I'll have to decide soon.

Two centuries after starting the war, Toku asks me to get involved.

Sure, I'll fight a fake war for you, buddy. Maybe since we're friends we can help each other out by trading a few techs or resources, too.

Oh, okay. He's at +8 diplo, but I guess I'll have to keep working at it. I will get Tokugawa to like me.

The power graph in 1000 AD.


And the tech situation.


Obviously I have a lot of techs to backfill (how did I overlook Currency for so long?), but it's also obvious that none of these guys are going to beat me to Liberalism. There are still two more civs out there, though, and for all I know they're Mansa and Huayna, so it's far from a sure thing.

Tokugawa has taken two of Bismarck's cities, and I'm a little concerned about a vassalization if things keep going the way the are. Mehmed could presumably help out his Hindu buddy, but he seems content to just sit there for centuries with something on his hands. In any case, the main decision I have to make going forward is whether to go for the cultural victory or follow my usual plan and go for domination.

Head for Machinary from Oracle, settle the 2 golds + seafood,




next city is blocking Joao. he still settles 2 south before my border pop.





I spy Japanese, great, just great.



I miss oracle for machinary by ONE yes 1 turn.

Manually research it, + CS on route to Lib. Have vast stack of Cho Nos, + couple maces



Joao has archers guarding his cities, He does have 9 in his capital, easy GG points imo.





Nice of him to build the 'Mids and other wonders for us.

Basically long story short, conqued the Japanese with Rifles upgraded/drafted after a quick steel beline. Meggers vassals peacefully. Head to Mass Media after Artillery. Upgrade Rilfles to infantry, take Berlin. Bismark caps. Build UN (GE rushed) win Diplomactic.

Eh, I know. I guess I'm a bit afraid to over-expand on Emperor.
And the GW is probably a waste of hammers/time on this map. Actually this time I built it mainly for the GSpy, but probably a couple settlers was a better investment.



Axe rush should be easy. Actually, I hope the game doesn't become TOO easy for the axe-rushers.
But then, if the closest target is 20 tiles away: "Game too easy, so much land to settle".
If he's close: "2 early capitals, game too easy".

Befriending Toku can pay off nicely. He's not the best trading partner ever , but he's an excellent attack dog. Usually backward, so you have the techs to bribe him. And usually he hates everyone.
Just be sure not to make everyone else hate YOU.

And he signs defensive pacts at pleased.

I settled Beijing here

Then wanted to rush but forgot that it's not in first ring and I need mysticism for monuments costing me I think approximately 600 years

Think will move palace here while making Beijing Military

Finally got rid of Joao and settled this

Joao's city it sucks 1 tile from coast but saved me a settler

Tech Board

I have a 60xp Swordsman and a 23xp Warrior and Lisbon has a settled Military Instructor so the next one I am building academy with him in Lisbon

1060- Just as I suspected, Tokugawa takes another German city and Bismarck capitulates.


In 1190, the Sistine Chapel and University of Sankore complete on the same turn. It's at this point that I decide on a culture victory, because it just makes too much sense given these conditions. I'm off to a late start on it, so I get to work on spreading my three religions around (I got lucky and Christianity spread to one of my cities) and building temples for the cathedrals. My three culture cities are going to be Beijing, Shanghai, and Lisbon.

Also around this time, I make my very first trades with Tokugawa (maybe ever ). I don't remember for what.

1220- I win the Liberalism race, take Nationalism, but I build a few other buildings in Shanghai before it starts on the Taj Mahal, since no one else seemed to be close to Nationalism (again, I could have gotten burned by one of the civs I haven't met). I revolt to Free Speech.

1295- Tokugawa declares on Mehmed next.

1345- Toku asks me to join him, and I'm happy to (fake) help again.

1375- My caravel heading west meets Louis' heading east. He's the founder of Buddhism and kind of backwards, but I get a couple of old techs off of him.

I trade for his map and find out that his neighbor is Genghis Khan, who I meet the next turn. That trade also gives me the circumnavigation win.

1400- Tokugawa finally goes to Friendly status, thanks to Mercantilism and our second shared war.

1420- Taj Mahal completes in Shanghai.

A few turns later I pop a Great Scientist when I had been going for a Great Artist, but it's okay because I can burn him to double my golden age.

1425- Mehmed capitulates and Tokugawa is now the master of his continent.

I spend the 15th century in a long golden age, building culture buildings in my three important cities and temples and protective muskets everywhere else. Here's the tech picture in 1500:


As far as power rating, I'm about the same strength as Toku's two vassals, however, with him Friendly and Louis and Genghis without Astronomy, I have nothing to worry about for the time being. Plus, I'm 7 turns away from Rifling, at which point my power rating is going to skyrocket as I crank out the Protective rifles.

My strategy is pretty obvious: do whatever it takes to keep Toku friendly. He's pleased with Genghis despite different religions (that hidden warmonger respect, right?), so I can afford to trade with Genghis, but he's cautious with Louis and I'm guessing that's going to drop to annoyed, so I'm being cold to Louis as well. As things look now, this should be a fairly straightforward path to a culture win, but plans can always go wrong.

1575- Genghis Khan declares on Louis and apparently bribes Tokugawa to join him even though Toku is 9 turns from Astronomy. I join in another fake war for the diplo. Poor Louis.


1660- Genghis takes Paris. He's way more powerful than Louis, and I expect a capitulation any turn now. Meanwhile, of course, I'm proceeding unmolested toward a culture win, so it's all kind of pointless.

Here's the important part: Toku at +20.


So can I trade you something for one of those four spices?

Of course not. And he's not giving up that world map, either. He must have found something really secret

1708- This is overkill, but I'll take it.


1718- Genghis makes peace with Louis with no capitulation. Weird.

1748- Tokugawa offers a Defensive Pact.

Hell yes. Barring a diplomatic fallout with Toku (which would take real talent at this point), about the only thing that could conceivably spoil my win would be a massive invasion by Genghis, and I just made that way more unlikely.

1755- Notice anything strange about this screenshot?

That's right, Tokugawa likes everybody.

Around this time I'm at that point in the culture game where you have to decide when to shut everything down and sprint to the finish. I decide to go ahead and tech to sushi because Biology is going to be quite helpful for my three artist farms, and I have a Great Merchant lying around that I got from Economics.

1802- I finish researching Medicine on the same turn that Shanghai completes the Statue of Liberty. Now it's definitely time to shut things down.

Hey, best friend, can you spare some fish?

Boy, it's a good thing my feelings don't get hurt easily. *sniff*

1832- Genghis declares on Louis, Toku joins in, and I start my fourth fake war just for the heck of it. It's all irrelevant at this point.

1846- Louis capitulates to Genghis. Interestingly, Bismarck sent quite an invasion force down there and managed to take a city before this happened.

1852- Beijing reaches Legendary culture first, and on the same turn a GA pops in Lisbon, which I use to get it to Legendary. Just three more turns for Shanghai.

1855- And there it is.


I'm sure a better player could have won it much earlier with these conditions, but I think I did okay for a guy with virtually no experience in culture victories. They're definitely not the highest-scoring way to win:


But a win is a win, and a culture victory definitely calls for a celebratory song:

东方红，太阳升，
中国出了个毛泽东。
他为人民谋幸福，
呼尔嗨哟，他是人民大救星！

毛主席，爱人民，
他是我们的带路人，
为了建设新中国，
呼尔嗨哟，领导我们向前进！

共产党，像太阳，
照到哪里哪里亮。
哪里有了共产党，
呼尔嗨哟，哪里人民得解放！

(Props to anyone who recognizes this.)

techs: CoL - MC - calendar (Meh) - machinery - monarchy (Bis) - CS - paper - construction (Joao) - education - feudalism, philo, mono (Meh) - eng, theo and hbr (Joao) - aesthetics (Bis) - liberalism + printing press - guilds (Meh) - gunpowder - chemistry - nationalism, drama, literature, compass (Bis) - rep parts and music (Toku) - steel - economics and optics (Louis) - rifling - steam power - sci meth (GK) - astro (GK) - researching railroad

70 - Switch to NSR, Joao still pleased.

340 - Meet Toku.

340 - GS builds academy in capital.

480 - Xian:



1000 - Barb uprising in 1000 AD? They never entered my borders. The first killed my warrior on that SE hill, the other 3 did nothing. Just sitting there, waiting for my spear to kill them (healing between kills).



1210 - I get Printing Press from Lib. Joao built the Taj Mahal a couple centuries ago and I don't need nationhood at this point.

1220 - DoW Joao:



1230 - Revolt and Coimbra captured. Parthenon inside.

1260 - Revolt and Guimaraes captured. Joao's main stack killed and a few wonders:



1295 - Oporto razed.

1315 - Braga captured and cease fire.

1365 - DoW again.

1370 - Leiria auto-razed (new city founded to replace Oporto).

1375 - AP forces peace. Already defied the first time a few turns ago and I can't deal with more unhappiness. Stupid Toku voted to stop the war and it passed by 4 votes.

1385 - Genghis is the first post-astro AI.

1460 - 470 gold extorted from Joao.

1485 - Bis can be bribed by Joao, so I adopt Hinduism and Nationhood to make him friendly. Then I notice he is not running is fav civic and is still plesed.

1520 - DoW vs Joao again.

1525 - And Bismarck is bribed vs me as predicted.

1535 - Revolt and Lisbon captured:



1540 - Last AI is Louis.

1550 - GM starts golden age and I keep Bis busy on his continent:



1565 - Lagos captured.

1590 - Joao vassal to Louis, so I'm at war with him as well now.

1595 - Joao is dead:



1605 - Peace with Bis.

1615 - Louis gave me the chance to capture this garbage. 2 unclaimed tiles and he still had to settle it:



And peace with Louis.

1675 - GA sleeps, another GP is coming in 6 turns.

1704 - Ruins event:



1714 - GM+GA start golden age.

1736 - Another GM from Xian. Will found Sushi.

Empire at 1752. I'll have to resettle that razed city, after all. There are 4 mature cottages to work:







Tech board isn't bad, considering I was running at 0% science at some stages of the war vs Joao. Sadly, the people with something to trade don't want to trade with me.



Diplo is a mess. People keep adopting stupid religions and switching out of their fav civics. Luckily everyone hates Bismarck:



Future plans: catch up with the new land and go on a vassalization spree with marines. I'm heading to combustion now, to build a modern fleet. Then, straight to Industrialism and spamming marines everywhere.