Random personalities: Isa (Deity)

In my struggle to find something that motivates me playing (couldn't get into Dirk's game just yet), i started a random pers. with my favorite girl Isabella ~~
(I know i know, addicted to Conqs!)

Settings besides that are Pangea, no huts/events.

I found this one rather relaxing to play so far (while watching lotr one more time ), not too hard but no candlyland

Opening scene:


Spoiler about the map for peoples who want them


Have fun if you give it a try ~~

Screenshot 1280 BC


What i did so far

I may play this in abit to warm up for playing IU 65 now i've forgotten what I saw making the WB save

Looking at the start I'm liking settling on the Wine, thou the extra turn to start improving the Corn + possible bfc coastal without the city being coastal might make me change my mind Warrior 1E so i can see what is 2E + 1S2E of to help with making that choice. Settling 1S is possible too if resources are there as that makes getting the Expansive bonus possible. Hmmm thinking about it, 1S is probably better than Wine

Habitus said:

Hmmm thinking about it, 1S is probably better than Wine

Click to expand...

That's what i did
It helps using the oasis and still getting a worker in 12 turns after settling, the problem with Isa is her bad starting techs. Soo the wine isn't a bad idea too i think, but i planted a cottage there.

If agri is researched in 11T with no commerce I'll settle 1s for sure as 10T worker out weights the extra commerce from wine (working plains forest), but I'd say a 12T worker vs extra commerce might be close, thou 5T till you can gain the commerce since need border pop for oasis makes me think 1S + working oasis isn't a bad move

Short of time right now but i'll probably get to it in due time. Start looks nice.

725BC, things are heatening up ~~

Overview:

Ramesses took a barb city north of me, and went into war preperation.
That looked like really bad news, iam not ready for a war and defending now would be very hurtful.
I gifted him Aestetics after i got my trades for it in (Alpha, IW, some minor stuffs), got pleased but the begging for a clams failed

The axe you can see on the top screen scouted the nearest city, only 1 archer inside so he will move back to not show empty cities (i always thought unguarded cities make it more likely to get declared, is that true?). So i hope Mehmed is his target, the diplo screen:


The happy cap situation was bad, iam desperately getting some breakers into Monarchy to trade it from Boudi for Aest. (she is the only one having it).
Not quiet enough yet...:

We settled similiarly Mylene, Barca was same but Cordoba was 1E. Was deciding on 4th city location when i stopped pre-1000BC Madrid had farms on fp thou as i was 2 pop whipping settlers into workers to get them in 1-2 turns, with odd unit for defense thrown in.

A quick update, now iam motivated to play on
Doesn't happen too often that you get DoW from a green smilie Rams, random personalities ftw!

Thankfully he took his sweet time to wander thru the forest above Barca, and i had 3 Spears whipped out in time against his 4 WCs. Had to upgrade the warrior to an Axe cos he had 1 Axe himself, trading with Mansa for gold...thanks Rams for almost screwing me up, i'll kick your butt later ~~

More random Ramy stupidity...after this very succesful attack he was willing to make peace for Poly, instead of Toledo ~~



I chopped out TGL in Madrid, my GS is almost finished, and noone can research music yet.
There is hope i can get this game going.





Mansa is teching like a mad man (random personalities?!?), 290 GNP at 350BC...


Diplo looking good now, Mehmed is the religious fanatic in this game oO


...but i may need his horses later!

Mansa may have randomly got himself.

MarigoldRan said:

Mansa may have randomly got himself.

Click to expand...

Nope. He's not willing to trade away monopoly techs.
He's not the only crazy techer.

I tried this one, looked very good in the beginning, but ended badly.

I settled on the wine, teched ag->wheel->pottery->mining->BW then Masonary->Meditation->Priesthood and managed to chop/build the Oracle in my second (marble-)city. (World Wonders were being built very slowly, so I dared to)





I chose Monarchy (I teched AH and Writing while building the Oracle) and then continued with Aesthetics and Literature, aiming for the Great Library.

However, as you see, a barb city spawned to the north, just 4 of where my 4th city should have gone. It was probably a bit risky to just have two (plus one) warriors for fogbusting.

Even worse, Boudica (who normally lives far way) grabbed the city and she massed military there. I made the mistake and switched into Buddhism a couple of times (she is Hindu), and one time I ended up being Boudicas worst enemy for a turn. Switched to non-religion and bribed her with Aesthetics and all seemed fine.



Didnt scout the south properly and misplaced the two cities; there is a fish to the far south but you have to place the cities differently to get it. Allows you to squeeze in 3 instead of 2 cities, though.

Went to research Music after Literature while building the GL, Mansa got Drama pretty quickly so I felt I could not squeeze Currency in before Music. Built the GL at 250BC (just before the screenshot above was taken), got a lot of gold by almost building the Paratheon (I stopped one turn before I completed it), traded around Music/Literature a lot.

Researched Currency partly and CoL all by myself, my capital rocked at this time, used it to breed 2 or 3 Great Scientists once I got to switch to Caste System/Pacifism.

Traded Paper, bulbed half of Education and researched Liberalism in 500 AD. Chose Nationalismn.



All seemed fine, but Boudica was still massing military, so I gifted her one or two techs in between. Meanwhile Mansa and Mao declared war on Toku who managed to hold them off until 600 AD, but in the end became a vasall of Mansa.

There were red fists next to Ramses (who was smiling) and Boudica (whose smile was green as well most of the time; dont know the correct description in english BTS) for quite some time, in the end they didnt have a worst enemy and I suspected the worst. Managed to as Boudica for 1gold/turn once, which saved me some time I guess.

Finally, Memhet wanted to trade horse with me, I quickly accepted.



But then, just before I got to build Conqus and after the turn I whipped the Taj Majal, the forced peace between Boudica and me expired and BOTH she and Mao declared war on me.





Game over. I guess my mistake was to try to switch religions (to get the benefits of Pacifism/Organized Religion, since all my cities were Buddhist) and that I refused to build some military. Might have worked if I had managed to bribe someone to attack Boudica. I was hoping Ramses might do that, but he was Hindu too.

That or one warrior more who would have prevented the barb city in the beginning, which in the end made Boudica my neighbour. Plus I could have placed my fourth and fifth city in the south better (didnt see the fish).

Any thoughts?

Overall Isa is a lot of fun. I love Spiritual, and with the Oracle there is a great synergy going on there. How does the Conqu-Rush work btw? Do I need spies or does it work with Conqus only?

edit: spelling

Ouch, but looks like you had a fun game ~~
Funny how different things can go, in my game Rams took the barb city and DoW on me soon after.
I don't see Boudi or Mao yet, was too busy fighting him off for scouting

Regarding your question on Conqs, usually they are strong enough to go without spy support or any other unit types. Thanks for playing the map! I'll look into it a bit deeper when iam done playing myself, maybe you could add a save game

Another bit of an update, iam playing slooow..keep getting distracted

Some scouting attempts with my super...spearmen...show that Mansa cannot only tech.
Scary, he has more troops in other cities.


Mao has a bigger stack roaming around including horse archers, i don't even dare to really scout in case i need my spare units.

I make it to music first (Mansa went Drama..), the GS farming GA is sorted.


3 turns for CoL afterwards, just in time for my 2nd GS to arrive to bulb Philo
(iam building some culture in Cordoba, don't trust SuperMansa to not go for stealing my Iron )
Bad enough that i will have to trade for horses.


Switching to Paci and Caste right away, cities are already working on barracks cos nothing else important can be done right now, and hopefully my last Budd Missio won't fail spreading it in Cordoba.

So iam almost ready for the GA, want to wait for the Missio and 2x growing to start the farming in these 3 cities:





Cordoba isn't the best city for it, but already has some points and should be good to use ~4.

The first good deals can be wrapped up, including currency from Rams (buddies again?!?)


Making it possible to go for CS now, and then straight on the road to my beloved Conquistadors.
Demos before the GA, my GNP is okay:


Let's hope i don't get a surprise DoW, and this is looking decent ~~

Will try to explain a bit what iam doing here, in case someone follows the game
After starting the GA, i went for a GM first in Madrid. At ~60% i got him, let's see where the ToA is...

In Mali, like most stuffs. I found out soon that both Djenne and Timbuktu give 1300 gold atm, not great but doesn't look like i can get a better deal further away.


As time goes by, Mao finally declares on Mehmed after being in war preperation for what felt like a 1000 years. Looks like iam safe.
To celebrate this event, Queen Isabella visited her sister in faith, Boudica, to suggest her troops look bored and need some action.


"She is sooo backwards..."...ahem... here Boudi, have all these small breakthroughs and let's go!

More time goes by...sitting on her throne a bit bored, Isabella gives orders to the smart peoples of the empire: "I want Education for our barbarian population! Impossible how i walk around, and meet men hiding their Donald Duck Comics from me. Shouldn't they read Shakespeare, the Bible, or something ?!?

Snip...back to reality, i researched Nationalism up to 1 turn. Bulbed Paper, and 50% of Edu.
2 more GS are almost completed, for the rest of Edu + most of Lib.
Requires me to research Compass, it's higher on the bulb list. And avoid machinery, to not get PP.

Meanwhile, barracks and stables are completed, and after a deal for MC with the (now!!) friendly Ramy all cities are switched to forges.


Mansa is busy teching DR, good good..


Leaving one problem...the horses -.-
Mehmed is at war with Ramy and Mao, very unclear if he will keep both his horse tiles.
In case he does, iam trying to not make him more angry than he already is.

Free religion for 5 turns should do it, hopefully.
I also gifted him copper and stuffs, and cancelled all deals with his worst enemy Mao..

No horses, no fun! ~~

Very nice gameplay, Mylene. Two questions, though:

1. Why do you need the GM? For researching gunpowder etc. in one go? Or for upgrading the Conquisidators to Cavalary later on?

2. Why did you only build six cities? In the south there is room for another decent one (4 of the iron)...

I played the game again, this time scouting better (settling on the hill 2 of the starting position like you did helps immensly since you dont need warriors for the south then). I was able to prevent any barb cities and thus was able to found 8 cities (one more in the south and one more in the north), and managed to stay out of trouble so far. Built the Oracle, the Great Library, the Mausoelum (was kind of lucky there I guess) and the Taj, reaching Lib a bit later than in my last game (at 560AD) but picking MT directly. Got horses from Mehmed and I'm about to mass Conquisidators. I will attack around 1000 AD; hopefully thats not too late. Mao will be my victim, since he's backwards and his army is on the other side of the continent battling Mehmed I think.

I will upload Screenshots and Saves (including the one from the last try) today or tomorrow, depending on how work goes.

Good luck with your game! Who will you be attacking?

^^ I planned to build some HAs or Jumbos to upgrade them, as it turns out i won't get horses or Ivory for some more turns thou. Will have to see.
Main reason behind that is, i want a big force as soon as possible for Mansa.
He has everything i need, game should be wrapped up if i can beat him.

Hmm i didn't think a 7th city would be worth it, i usually do some quick calculations there and it would have taken 1 seafood from my other city. While 1 food is enough, 2 makes for a much better whipping city cos the coastal ones don't have much production.

Good luck with your game

So here I am, having two Vasalls but also a very dangerous Toku just at the doorstep. He's fighting Mehmed at the moment, but I have to beat the bastard in order to win. I might try to vasall Ramsess quickly, he has only 6 cities (but is teching very quickly, he has Rifling and can research AL). What should I do with my lovely stack of Cavs?

p.s. uploaded both the current save and the one from the previous try, just a couple of turns before Boudi attacked me

Okay let's go on, with a shot of Toku plotting.
His worst enemy is Mansa, and he really likes Swords...he is a Samurai at heart, after all.
I'd like to see this army in action vs. Mansa's plenty longbows + x-bows ~~


I got my 2 GS as planned, finishing Edu, teching Compass which allows bulbing Lib.

...leading to this next turn:


4 turns until gunpowder, i switch to Free Religion/Slavery.
Mehmed goes from -1 glance to +3, but still won't trade horses..
he also vassaled to Ramy.


I don't think there is anything more i can do at this point, besides waiting for some diplo mali to run out, or gain +1 from ressources. At least Ramy built the AP in Buddhism, and i have +hammer relig. buildings to cover while waiting for the horses.

Having Compass is not so bad now

I sign a defensive pact with Ramy
Hoping his vassal Mehmed will like that and give me horses, but nopes...why not?!?
Geez this stubborn Men, and he still didn't forget the trades with his worst enemy.

4 turns later...Gunpowder is finished, and Mehmed still cautious
What to do, let's have a look...

Ahaaa! Isabella is pleased to see that the osmanian barbarian has her mentality, and likes good solid religious fanatism. A trade for Theo was made, Civics switched, Buddishm given up heavy-hearted for 5 turns, and yay yay yay:


The next set will be building & unleashing my Conquistadors!