King of the World #4: Mansa Musa

Sorry. This week's been hell and a half. I'll try to play the next round by Monday.

A long, boring round dedicated to grabbing the Internet and setting us up for the endgame.

At this point in the game, we finally have it all: Money, Power, and a fine Egyptian woman to call our own. We also obtained some Hit Musicals, which we promptly passed around to anyone willing to pay:



Thebes was worth taking for Broadway alone.

Of course, when you shill your goods on the open market, eventually you're going to make an unpopular move. Saladin came by, complaining about my faux pas:



... It was against my better judgement, but I consented for the moment. Arabia's got money and power, too. No women, though (which probably contributed to his sour disposition), but I think we're done warring for this game, so I wasn't gonna argue.

Done with war, at least, unless you count our brushfire campaign against Roosevelt. He finished burning our South American crab traps, and came to his senses:



As I'd said before, we could have crushed him like a palmetto bug, but it just wasn't worth it. And 330 gold seems like a fair price for the hassle of rebuilding those Work Boats, so we're all square. Run along and play, Roosy.

With Mali at peace for the first time in a long time, I took steps to ensure that war wasn't going to flare back up anytime soon:



Mess with me and reap the whirlwind.

James Watt, having been cooling his heels in Timbuktu for centuries, finally got off his rump and contributed to the Empire, founding Mining Inc. in Madrid:



All this resulted in kind of a weird National Wonder combo in the old Spanish capital. Ironworks and Wall Street. I know it's suboptimal, but Madrid is our best production city, and it's got the Buddhist shrine, along with (now), the Mining Inc. headquarters.

In 1854, something really weird happened. I love when weird things happen in this game. Elizabeth, long an International Pariah for her lack of religious conformity, finally took a right hook to the mouth. What's weird is the source of that blow:





I was kind of wistful, watching all these wars taking place around me, but I recognized my role as peaceful tech whore and kept back.

I finally founded that city on the Ivory Coast and got some great deals on surplus metals for Mining Inc.:



Apparently, if it's not of that much value to you, the computer lowers its asking price. Significantly.

In 1876, we earned a second Great Engineer, who brought about a Malinesian Golden Age of peace, prosperity and construction:



As you can see, in the interest of nabbing the Internet, our tech path this round was Electricity, Industrialism, Plastics, and Radio. The whole idea is that this will allow us to pursue beelines without having to worry about backfill techs or uplift our neigbors once we attained a tech lead.

Qin Shi Huang, meanwhile, was apparently growing impatient. Maybe he realized that he wasn't going to win by playing Happy Kingdom. Maybe he was finally fed up with everyone hating him for being Confucian. Maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of bed.

Regardless, with Elizabeth under his thumb, he went for a new conquest closer to home:



As war raged along the Sino-Indian border, Frederick asked us to stop trading with the Chinese. Sorry, bud. At this point, I think that the cash is more important than diplomatic relations, especially considering that Germany can't do anything rash without Mama Russia's express written approval.

We did nab Fascism and Communism, along with some cash, from him for Industrialism. Yeah, it was a dumb move, especially given that we're shooting for the Internet, but ultimately a harmless one. He can build Panzers now, yeah, but as I'd said, he's kinda hamstrung.

I don't know how real the war is between China and India. I haven't seen any cities change hands, but there's quite a bit of troop movement:



In 1906, something interesting happened: Hattie built the U.N.:



And she won election handily. Not that I really feel threatened by it, but is it even theoretically possible for a vassal to win a Diplomatic Victory?

We also earned Great People in both Memphis and Thebes. Time for Golden Age take two! Or not. Sadly....



@#$%. Ah, well. I set one to waiting for a buddy and sent the other off to my city on the Strait of Gibraltar. It has an awkward odd amount of food that results in the population bouncing up and down, which bothers me immensely.

In 1907, the world learned to groove to that new Madrid sound:



Time for another trading montage!



Here's a look at Madrid, just for the purpose of finding out whether my choice of National Wonders there (IW and WS) was defensible:



All right. Something else weird:



Okay, okay. Miami is up in central Canada in this game. Reading that line still made me do a double take.

After 1910, things started happening quickly on the world stage. Catherine completed the Manhattan Project, and Asoka and Tokugawa each completed their own Apollo Programs. I'm not worried about Tokugawa completing a spaceship, but Asoka could be worrisome, and the introduction of nuclear diplomacy also puts a crimp in my peaceful plans.

Oh, and Louis asked me to convert to Judaism. Louis isn't the smartest monarch on the leaderboard.

In 1912, something very bad also apparently happened to Freddy:



I don't recall an event, nor is he at war. Must've had bad luck with a reactor. Sucks to be him.

In 1915, Timbuktu spawned a Scientist, giving us our long-delayed second Golden Age.

Finally, in 1917:



This popped us Mass Media, Medicine, Fission, Flight, Artillery, and Rocketry. Not a bad haul. And now we can continue to research cutting edge, obscure beelines, letting the rest of the world give us everything else.

So here's where I decided to stop. Here's the new, much cleaner tech screen:



Satellites should be online real soon, now

The world situation:



I have a nice triangle of Defensive Pacts going with Cyrus and Cathy. I shouldn't have to worry about anything on that front for the rest of the game. Nevertheless, I upgraded some obsolete troops to Mechanical Infantry, just in case.

The Power Graph:



We're not the biggest fish in the pond, but we can hold our own. Especially considering Russia's a little on the backward side.

And, finally, a look at our Empire:



So there we have it. The Apollo Program should be built soon, and then it's just a matter of time. Any final thoughts or advice as we hurtle to the endgame?

Here's hoping Asoka actually puts up a fight and its one of those rare interesting space races where things are actually... well, a race. You should probably go refridgeration - superconductors first (I always do) for the labs and thrusters. After that, I don't think it matters much.

Go Fusion and genetics after getting superconductors . AI tends to go to laser and other crap ( atleast is crap for a SS win )....

Well, this is pretty much over anyway....

Good luck on space!

Well, we won, but it was less of a sure thing than I had anticipated.

Things started simply enough. We set our sights on Fusion, both because nobody else was researching it and for the free Engineer. Shortly thereafter, someone posted blueprints for a Frigidaire on Limewire:



Thanks, Internet! We ended up nabbing Ecology and another tech (see below) from it, too. I've always thought of it as a "catch-up" wonder, but it's quite handy with a tech lead, as well.

Our Egyptian vassals beat the Madrid moguls to the establishment of major motion picture studios (i.e., we lost the race to Hollywood by three turns), but the Spanish filmmakers, not to be outdone and embittered by lack of mainstream success, became legends in the niche indy scene:



I'd honestly forgotten to demand Movies from Hattie. Now I wouldn't have to.

In 1930, our tech juggernaut proved to be an annoyance:



Hmph. Asoka already has Satellites, Caesar is two turns away, and I don't have any alternatives. Ah, well. Time to crank up the Money slider out of pure spite:



I know, I know. I can't get myself to zero out the science slider. I'm a freak.

That move, though, designed only to get more mileage out of the Internet, ended up being, inadvertently, huge for us. With the knowledge of Satellites gleaned off the message boards, we started immediately on the Space Elevator in Timbuktu:



With the help of the two Engineers hanging out in the city and 2400 Gold from the Satellites gambit, the Elevator went from zero to done in a single turn!



Honestly? It probably saved us two or three turns, max. But it was cool, and isn't that the whole point?

In 1936, coming down the home stretch, we received a pleasant surprise.



We beat our vassal. Sorry, Hattie! You can still be on the committee. We banned Nuclear Weapons, which was just fine, since I'd built a small arsenal in Madrid.

In 1937, Monty finally got around to smacking the Americans around:



Good to see. Roosevelt had it coming.

Then, in 1939, everything went to hell:



Whuh? Apparently, Qin Shi Huang decided to make a late game push, declaring on Catherine. And, unfortunately, Defensive Pacts swing both ways.

It was World War III! Or II, or whatever!



This was not the way I wanted to spend Mansa Musa's golden years.

Catherine was apparently more prepared for the conflict than we were:



But, then, she usually is.

Suddenly, we were swarmed by China's powerful, modern navy:



In a moment of mixed panic, frustration, and sheer malice, I expended Mali's nuclear arsenal:









No real effect, other than to ding my enemies' economies a bit and see the pretty 'splosions.

Needless to say, I couldn't afford the proper attention of a Chinese stack. As a result, I pulled some strings in the U.N. to get out of this war. Sadly, the rest of the world saw through my transparent scheme:



Earth was looking less and less hospitable by the turn. It was time to cut and run:



Now it was just a matter of keeping our head down and eyes peeled for 10 turns.

Catherine continued her brutal campaign in England:



Eesh.

Well, things weren't going so well for the Chinese, now were they? It was time to see if I could get off the hook the old fashioned way. All right, Qin, what do you want? Thousand gold? Three or four techs? Hell, a city? Name it. It's yours. I just can't afford to be in a genuine war right now.



Oh, Qin. Qin, Qin, Qin. Sure. 40 Gold. Take it. That was rather anticlimactic.

Finally, in 1954,





It was done. I did it. We did it. Heck of a game.

Here's the final numbers:





And the world we left behind:





So... post-mortem. What did we learn in this game?

I learned that no matter how bad things look, it's not over till it's over. I was ready to give up at least three or four times in this game, but, thanks to your prodding, I persevered and ended up winning pretty easily.

I learned that when Montezuma plays nice (He adopted Free Religion, for cryin' out loud!) and isn't forcing America to kowtow and seek allies wherever they can be found, Roosevelt can be kind of a jerk.

I learned just how cool the Internet can be.

And I learned that Catherine can get real scary real fast if you "suggest" she flex her considerable military muscle.

Thanks again for a great game. I feel like I learned a lot this time through, and I hope that at least some of that came through in the writeup.

Now play a version with a 7 turn moving to Sudan in the beginning

Kidding... Well done ( in spite of 80% slider while getting future tech... beats me )

And next? HC is still waitng for you ....

Where should my slider have been? I've never really understood how to optimize those last few turns when the game is basically over. Isn't Future Tech worth a lot in the final standings? Would money to rush buy buildings have been a better choice?

Probably not... But the score given by the future techs is pretty negligible. If you have settled the Amazonia with, let's say , 2 cities , and used the cash to $rush infra, you would had probably done a better score ( if you had a lot of cashrushed workers too and sushied the cities )

nicely done. good win from a crap position

Great win Neal. It was a good showcase on how to win without being the dominant power in a game, especially with so many rivals.

Did you notice your world war started in 1939? There's room for a conspiracy theory there

Nice game

That was awesome man.

Did you notice Cyrus vassalized to Cathy on the last turn? Wonder how close she was to a domination victory...

Congratulations! Who's the next leader?

DMOC said:

Congratulations! Who's the next leader?

Click to expand...

Up a level and an easier leader perhaps? Or maybe show the AI how Spain should be played?

Here's a vote for Spain.

I too vote for Spain. Conquistadors marching across Europe, or you can't get revenge against monty for those years . .. .. .. .. .. .. .ry, as the spanish should.

I'd love to see a Spanish game as well. Claiming North Africa, taking Europe from Iberia... good times.

That's... a lot of votes for Spain.

I vote Mongolia! Challenging start, and a more bloodthirsty game than peacenik Mansa.
(but I'm late... seeing as Izzy is already the new avatar... )