LCP01 - Turkish Invasion!

Game Details:
Civilization: Mehmed II - Ottoman Empire
Version: BTS 3.13 - Rhye's and Fall of Civilization Mod
Difficulty: Emperor
Speed: Normal
Map: RFC 3000 BC unlocked
Victory: UHV, or possibly Space Race (everything enabled)




Our goal will be that of the Ottoman Empire - Conquer. We must control the full extent of their nation at its peak. Victory is up for discussion but I want to try the UHV first and if that turns out to be too easy... space race may be challenging with industrious neighbors. The twist is we cannot destroy civilizations beyond the homeland territory. Anything beyond that will have to be through vassals. We will liberate any cities which aren't directly beneficial, gift vassals ALL of our techs, trade or gift them surplus resources, etc. I'm really just hoping that one of them will get antsy and go Tepes on us.


This will be my first RFC game playing on Emperor but I've played the Turkish scenario a couple times from a 600 AD start. This start definitely looks more challenging but I welcome anyone regardless of mod knowledge. I would prefer you're atleast comfortable playing BTS on monarch or higher.



Roster:
1. LtCowprod
2. vra379971
3. Jet
4.
5. ???


Starting situation, goals, civic options are below...

A question...do you have the save from BEFORE you settled...? Or do you start in that city?

It was settled to see whats up with the world... but yea I've got both of the saves either way.

I'll lurk this one to get a feel for Rhye's

I'll play, but I'd rather use the unsettled save, to get Istanbul as the capital.

vra379971 said:

I'll play, but I'd rather use the unsettled save, to get Istanbul as the capital.

Click to expand...

lurker's comment

Istanbul is the same as Byzantion, you'll have to take it by force

He means so Istanbul will have the Palace. I usually do that myself... but I'm not sure it will be the best route this time. I rolled a few starts to get a decent defense and it might not be wise to throw our stack at it on turn one.

Come on folks... lets get one or two more and get this thing rolling.

I'd play, but I can't guarantee that I understand the game, nor that I can play on a regular schedule - sorry!

Well Rhye's isn't that difficult and the Turkish scenario is really straight forward in itself. I doubt it will be a cakewalk, but yea... its really basic. We build units, capture cities, and repeat. If you can handle that much and want to play - that's fine.

Well apparently no one else is signing up ... so what you say vra379971? You want to go on and start? Maybe if we get it going then someone may come along.

I say yes, so... to move on Istanbul or settle? We have enough units to take it but can we hold it from the counter attack? The visible units are about neck and neck, and no Byzantine roads plus 60% culture slows that down a bit. We need a city within 3 turns to get free workers?



I was thinking maybe head for Babylon first since we get iron and few other resources there. We'll need Athens to get iron if we move on Greece since it looks like Russia may already control the northwest ore.

Hey, I'll sign up. I hope vra is still up for it. Istanbul would be ideal, but I don't think there are enough units to take it on turn 1, before another city flips. If the Wheats look like they're not being worked by another city, I think the Marble is the best capital tile.

Alright that makes three which seems like a good number! And if anyone else comes along....

I'm not sure about the wheat but we know they have Babili which is most likely 6E of us. Maybe another 2S of the mountain at the east of the sea.

If so that would make the Marble a bit of a double edged sword blocking the two tiles in Anatolia which count towards the Black Sea. Istanbul counts towards either Balkans or Black sea, but I'm not sure if it can count as both. I lost the first UHV I played by one city so I think it only counts as one.

Typically I settle Sogut in place and just keep it as a unit pump moving it north or south steals food from Istanbul/Athens. Some scouting may be in quick order.

On another note I find it interesting we start with a Great Scientist. I can't remember what he'd bulb but we need to figure out the quickest route to Nationalism which we can already research. We start with our UU so tech wise e don't need much other than that. Well the Opera House too...

Scouting tells us the wheat is being worked but nothing else. No one is willing to open borders without a bribe which definitely mucks up diplomacy if we plan to befriend (backstab) Arabia. The scientist doesn't tell us much either without settling.

I'm not sure what we may have coming our way as far as cities. As-Sur always flipped in 600AD, I doubt Babylon gives in without a fight since they have maybe 4 cities tops.

Ideally we pick up As-Sur peacefully, covert to Islam and align with Saladin to start the crusade against the infidels. He probably won't like losing a city either though....

I dunno folks, I still think we can take Constantinople...

On turn 1? I think that's all the time we have - I think cities will start to flip on turn 2.

I think we actually have to own a city before they will flip. The main disadvantage I see is we probably lose workers but Sogut's tiles are improved and we can steal more.

I mainly hate that pesky cannon sitting in there since our defenders will have to accompany the stack. I have to admit I wouldn't mind trying it though.... a well established capital is a big start.

From looking at Victory.py, it looks like Istanbul can count for both the Black Sea and the Balkans.

From talking to the leaders and looking at CityNameManager.py, you can figure out where their cities are (large map in spoiler). Tushpa should flip to us. Settling on the Marble would require a third Black Sea city; I wouldn't mind putting one in Russia and using it to kill Russian units on defense. But Sogut (or Byzantion if there's a way) and then north of the Wheats is also fine by me, although maybe not my favorite.
We could test a Turkish start in a different game to see what happens with flipping...

Alright I played out the first three turns and things went... well better than okay. In a execution of sheer arificial intelligence Greece retreats its cannon to Athens. They also built another or pulled one out of hat some place else because they've got three now. We captured Istanbul on turn two losing only a cannon and crossbow at 90% odds. While our Praetorian who was intended as cannon fodder survived at 26%. Hey! Atleast he's loyal to someone even if its not Rome. The offensive units in Athens dissappeared but are the least of our worries.

The good news is we flipped three cities and Babylon declared war. This gave us about 5 more horse archers and a couple extra crossbows in Istanbul. Meanwhile Babylon brought a couple Knights across the borders and I rearranged our troops from the flipped cities. We gained 4 longbows and a pikeman via those but one city was undefended (Khalab).



We have enough money to upgrade all but two horsies to knights but we need iron to upgrade the trebs. I stopped before settling so we can decide on city placement. Our scientiest will partially bulb Chemistry, nice but not really needed. I think an academy in Istanbul is probably the better option right now.

Religion? Do we adopt Christianity or Islam? We have the church of nativity now but may want to please Saladin. We'll be getting the Islamic and Judean shrines soon enough.

And civics? Hereditary rule is a no brainer, so is vassalage. We obviously want theocracy in the long run but maybe OR is better until we get infrastructure up. Slavery or Caste is up for grabs. Once we have draft it really doesn't matter either way.

Nice, we win the cool capital prize. More potential vassals are Christian, probably all of Europe. Also that's the AP religion. Academy+Caste might allow us to research Nationalism in fewer than 141 turns. Theo would let us switch to Nationhood+Occupation with only 1 turn of anarchy but still get an XP bonus.

Not sure who would be better to attack. Unfortunately we can't see either of their power graphs. It would be faster and cost less money to attack Babylon, since we could get our units there and beat down the walls from within our own territory. Looks like it and Athens both have useful wonders (Bab - Kukulkan, Athens - Parthenon + Artemis).