I've been trying to win the Mongol scenario on Deity for a couple of days now. After improving, but so far always failing I'd like to write a combination of a strategy guide and walkthrough. The idea is to first sum up my observations, then formulate a strategy based on this, and finally play through for another time to see how that works out. I know there are a some strategy guides for this scenario already, but I wanted to do something more in detail. Depending on feedback and the availability of in depths walkthroughs I might do this for other scenarios, too, but let's get this started and see how it goes.
This post will portray the general managment of the empire and military strategy to conquer most of the East. Afterwards I will add a post that details how my plan worked out (a play diary basically), then part II of the military strategy (Persia and India), another diary post, then strategy for the remaining conquests, and finally another diary post with final observations.
Basics
What is on the map
If we want to conquer everything we should start by taking a look at what needs to be done exactly. There are 8 civilization to beat and another 11 city states to take, scattered over a 85x40 hex map. No new cities can be built. However, this is clearly not good enough to make a strategy, so let's take a closer look.
What we have
What we want
Science
At first it seems like science is something of minor value, that just happens in this scenario, but this is not the case. We want to get access to basic techs like Masonry and Engineering eventually, but more importantly there are a few key techs that we can get access to with the free techs from eliminating civs.
My strategy here will be to research Masonry and Construction first because that gives us access to the Colosseum. Afterwards Engineering will be next as that allows us to make use of bridges. Then we research Sailing, Optics, and Compass. The free techs of the China conquest will be used on Theology and Education to allow us access to Notre Dame. The free techs from eliminating Persia and Arabia will be used for Astronomy and Navigation. The remaining techs can be spent freely. Machinery might be a solid choice. Gunpowder will also do.
Social policies
There is really not much to do in this part of the game. We have the choice of Military Tradition and Professional Army right away. Professional Army give us the means to upgrade three instead of just two Horsemen to Keshiks. That is nice, but we will win enough money by conquest. It is much more important to get that extra experience from Military Tradition, because our units need to get to at least to level 6 to fight effectively in the later stages of this scenario. Professional Army is next up, and the rest is pure bonus. The only things that seem remotely worth pursuing afterwards are Piety for Organized Religion and Liberty for Meritocracy. Unfortunately Meritocracy is one deeper in its policy tree. I am not sure how many cities actually have monuments. If more than a few have them --which seems likely-- than Organized Religion should be better, because we get the bonus way earlier.
Roads
Connecting your empire is always important of course as trade routes keep your pockets full. Considering how crucial time managment is in this scenario it should not too surprising that it matters if we can shave off a turn for the time to complete an invasion by building a road. The most important road --the silk road-- already exists when we start the game. However, Karakorum is only connected to the silk road by a detour and we should change that. There is really just one other, bigger road which seems worth mentioning. Eventually we will have to conquer Russia, and that is a couple of turns to the NW from Persia. It would probably be "only" between two and three but we have to ford a river along the way. And the army that is supposed to be coming from Persia is not really coming from Persia anyway. That army is in fact coming from India. If we start early we can connect Delhi through the Himalaya pass to the N with the silk road. If two more Workers starts building a road in the direction NW starting in Urgench, then we can shorten the travel from Delhi to Wladimir from 6 turns to 3 turns. If eventually Kiew will not be the last thing we conquer with the India/Russia army then that still gives three extra turns to send it S for Constantinople.
Military strategy
General observations
In this scenario we have 100 turns to capture every other civilization, but we don't need to conquer the city states. Thus we have to conquer 30 cities in 100 turns, or one about every three turns. More or less inevitably we will also take Xi-Xia, and we can consider adding either Almaty or Uiguren while we are in the area. Both provide additional Horses, and especially Almaty lies in a bottle neck. Being a Military cs they will also give additional units right away. All things considered we have 100 turns to take ~32 cities. By just maneuvering around one force this is basically impossible. Getting our forces from one city into position in front of the next city takes always at least one turn, and besieging a city often takes more than two turns. That means we can only win by splitting our forces and/or getting cities in peace deals. However, the problem with peace deals is that we cannot attack the civ for 10 turns, so we will have to go back and they also have time to rebuild their forces. So peace deals only make sense when we either get cities that are extrordinarily tough to conquer like Tabriz and Kamakuro, or when we are staying in the area anyway (even if we came back anyway, giving them more than 10 turns to rebuild won't do).
The Plan
Part One -- The East
1 Xi-Xia -- The first thing we have to do is going south. We need the 15 Gold from meeting Xi-Xia to upgrade two Horsemen to Keshiks. Now we could ignore the cs, but in the long run we need their 2 Horses anyway, and the boost of two additional units early on is invaluable, so this is our first target. We will DoW on turn 2. It is often important to DoW early, because if we DoW before meeting more civs, that saves us the hit in their opinion, and consequently giving us better chances to betray them. Actually the moment we meet Jin-China we will trade all of our ressources to them, and then DoW right away. They pose not threat to use, we will DoW anyway, and this saves us the hit in China's opinion. We will meet them quickly afterwards and will soon war them, too. Woever we need to leech a bunch of gold from them as well, and for that we need their best possible opinion. Anyway our units should be in position to attack on the second turn. Our Horsemen will take out theirs and our Keshiks will bombard their city right away. It might be possible to conquer Xi-Xian in turn 3. In turn 4 it will definitely be ours.
2 Beijing, Kaifend, Liaoyang -- Now we can go SW and attack China's Chengdu, or SE towards Jin-China's Xian. Xian feels like the natural course, because it is closer. However, the best thing might actually be to go for Beijing right away. We can conquer that city with ease when coming from N and NW. Doing so will get the Great Wall under our control which will save us many moves when conquering the rest of Jin-China, and basically makes it impossible for China to move within our territory. Hitting them hard also has the advantage of leading to a quick peace settlement in which we can probably get Liaoyang. Getting Liaoyang is desirable because it does not only save us a siege, it also prevents us from having to do a detour. If all goes perfect Beijing falls around turn 9-10, then we press S for Kaifeng, and after conquering that accept Liaoyang in exchange for not bothering them for 10 turns. This should be around turn 14. Getting these cities presents us with new decisions: puppet, annex, or raze them? Kaifeng holds no strategic value whatsoever, and not even their spices offset the hit in happiness. Eventually Delhi will grow into Spices anyway. Beijing cannot be razed, but is not of great value either, so it must be puppeted. Liaoyang is a bit more interesting. My natural inclination always went towards razing it, but in the long run we might be short on Iron, and the additional Horses help, too. Finally the city has access to a currently unimproved Gold source which can offset the happiness hit, and we are not going to have permanent control over another source of Gold. There are a couple of courses I can see pursuing here. Razing and be done with it is one option. Then we might keep the city and puppet it. We might also keep the city and raze it down to one citizen, then never let it grow again. This has the advantage that we can later use it as a wharf to launch the ships that will help us conquering Japan. These ships will be bought with coin anyway, so doing it in a small city is no problem.
3 Xiangyang, Tanzhou, Hangzhou -- The next close cities are Xiangyang and Hangzhou. Pressing immediately for the capital was a nice strategy against Jin-China. The disadvantage here is that we cannot conquer Hangzhou with a Horseman from the N, and going in from the W leaves the Horseman vulnerable if we don't conquer Xiangyang and Tanzhou first. Xiangyang is free loot anyway. Before DoWing that we should trade all our resources to China for maximum value, and upgrade all but one Horseman for Keshiks. Xiangyang should then fall in two or three turns depending on the number of armies that need to be eliminated in its vicinity. Next up is Tanzhou. We can safely bombard that city from across the river. Meanwhile our Horseman fords the river towards the Forest in the W. Tanzhou should fall around turn 20. It is is of no value and should be razed. Afterwards our Keshiks swing E towards the capital. It is not necessary for all of our Keshiks to cross the river towards the S. We will need some later to attack Guangzhou, but two can either start working on Xian or go to Korea after capturing Hangzhou. Although Hangzhou is quite strong it should fall within the next four turns, around 24. We cannot raze that being a former. If it should be puppeted or annexed depends on whether we want this to be our wharf. The city has powerful resources and it is well positioned for a wharf if we take into account that we are not attacking Japan with Triremes, but with ships that can sail the ocean. So I believe the best course is to annex, and buy a courthouse from the 1000 gold we get for eliminating Jin-China.
4 Guangzhou, Xian, Korea, Chengdu -- Guangzhou is mainly a matter of going there and taking it. The place is completely worthless and should be razed immediately. Meanwhile the Keshiks that stayed N of the Yangtze River can soften up Xian or go to Korea. Probably they should go towards Korea. Jin-China cannot defend itself at all anyway. If Liaoyang was annexed before we can now use it to buy a Swordsman there to conquer Korea with. Our main force will now proceed to take Xian and then Chengdu from the N. Both should be more or less without defense and pose no problem. They are also worthless and should be razed. Some of my estimates might have been a bit optimistic, but even allowing for some delays this should have happened by turn 35.
Conclusion
We now have 12 horses under our control and should have 1500-2000 gold left even allowing for a courthouse in Hangzhou. Most of that should be spent on troops. We can support 10 Keshiks and 2 Horsemen with our horses. Thus we have the resources to dispatch two 4/1 armies to the W, while sending two Keshiks to conquer Korea. Buying further units with the remaining gold seems useful as they can serve triple duty. They can kill some of the roaring barbarians and thus protect our resources, their mere presence as garrison gives a much needed boost in happiness, and finally again their mere presence serves to make an impression upon our opponents. Even when not close to the front lines these units represent military strength and that might help to get a good peace deal from Persia eventually.
This post will portray the general managment of the empire and military strategy to conquer most of the East. Afterwards I will add a post that details how my plan worked out (a play diary basically), then part II of the military strategy (Persia and India), another diary post, then strategy for the remaining conquests, and finally another diary post with final observations.
Basics
What is on the map
If we want to conquer everything we should start by taking a look at what needs to be done exactly. There are 8 civilization to beat and another 11 city states to take, scattered over a 85x40 hex map. No new cities can be built. However, this is clearly not good enough to make a strategy, so let's take a closer look.
- Mongols (1 city) -- (c)apital Karakorum (8(H)orses; Silver)
- Jin-China (4) -- cBeijing (best captured from (N)orth or (S)outh; has Silk), Liaoyang (N; 5(I)ron, 2H; Gold), Xian (NW), Kaifeng (S/E/W; Spice)
- China (5) -- cHangzhou (SW; 8I; Silk), Guangzhou (N), Tanzhou ((0)any direction, Cavalry best from W), Chengdu (N/SE; Silk, Spice), Xiangyang (N)
- Japan (3) -- cKyoto (E, ???), Dazaifu (bombard from Korea then SE), Kamakuro (E)
- Persia (5) -- cUrgench (E; Cotton), Isfahan (E; Gold), Nishapur (S; Cotton, Gems), Tabriz (N/SE <- tough to take), Samarkand (NE; 2I)
- Arabia (4) -- cCairo (S+E <- maybe send some troops over the Red Sea; Marble), Mekka (E; Pearls), Damaskus (0; 2I; Cotton), Aleppo (S/NE <- coming from NE via Täbris might be preferable; 7H)
- India (4) -- cDelhi (SW; Sugar, Spice), Varanasi (W), Multar (S; Marble), Lahore (SW; Spice)
- Byzantium (2) -- cConstantinople (E; 2I; Cotton), Thessaloniki (E although N works too)
- Russia (3) -- cKiew (E; 2H; Fur), Wladimir (S), Nowgorod (SE/SW)
- City States (11) -- Xi-Xia ((M)ilitary; 2H), Korea (M; 7I; Gems), Uiguren ((C)ultured; 2H, 2I), Dali (M; Silk, Gems), Almaty (M; 3H), Lhasa (C), Abbasids ((F)ood/Maritime; 4H; Sugar, Cotton), Georgia (C), Hungary (C; ???), Dai Viet (F), Crusaders (F; ???)
What we have
- Karakorum with Stables, Barracks, Granary, and a Monument
- 2 Horse ressources for a total supply of 8
- 4 Horsemen, 1 Keshik (UU replaces Knight), 1 Khan (Great General), 2 Worker
- 199 gold
- Every tech that is necessary for Chivalry, Iron Working, and Calender
- Social policies: Honor base policy, Warrior Code, Discipline, Military caste + culture for one more policy
- +1 Movement for cavalry units and +30% bonus when fighting cs.
- 1000 gold and free tech for capturing civs
- Free policy for capturing cultured cs; 2 Horsemen in Karakorum for capturing military cs; 500 gold for capturing maritime cs
- 100 turns
What we want
Science
At first it seems like science is something of minor value, that just happens in this scenario, but this is not the case. We want to get access to basic techs like Masonry and Engineering eventually, but more importantly there are a few key techs that we can get access to with the free techs from eliminating civs.
- Education (L5 tech with 1x L4 still needing to be researched) for Notre Dame
- Astronomy (L6 needs L23455 including Education) for Caravels
- Navigation (L7 right after Astronomy) for Frigates
- Machinery (L5 needs L234) for Crossbow Archers
- Rifling (L8 needs L23445567 some of which we want anyway) for Riflemen
My strategy here will be to research Masonry and Construction first because that gives us access to the Colosseum. Afterwards Engineering will be next as that allows us to make use of bridges. Then we research Sailing, Optics, and Compass. The free techs of the China conquest will be used on Theology and Education to allow us access to Notre Dame. The free techs from eliminating Persia and Arabia will be used for Astronomy and Navigation. The remaining techs can be spent freely. Machinery might be a solid choice. Gunpowder will also do.
Social policies
There is really not much to do in this part of the game. We have the choice of Military Tradition and Professional Army right away. Professional Army give us the means to upgrade three instead of just two Horsemen to Keshiks. That is nice, but we will win enough money by conquest. It is much more important to get that extra experience from Military Tradition, because our units need to get to at least to level 6 to fight effectively in the later stages of this scenario. Professional Army is next up, and the rest is pure bonus. The only things that seem remotely worth pursuing afterwards are Piety for Organized Religion and Liberty for Meritocracy. Unfortunately Meritocracy is one deeper in its policy tree. I am not sure how many cities actually have monuments. If more than a few have them --which seems likely-- than Organized Religion should be better, because we get the bonus way earlier.
Roads
Connecting your empire is always important of course as trade routes keep your pockets full. Considering how crucial time managment is in this scenario it should not too surprising that it matters if we can shave off a turn for the time to complete an invasion by building a road. The most important road --the silk road-- already exists when we start the game. However, Karakorum is only connected to the silk road by a detour and we should change that. There is really just one other, bigger road which seems worth mentioning. Eventually we will have to conquer Russia, and that is a couple of turns to the NW from Persia. It would probably be "only" between two and three but we have to ford a river along the way. And the army that is supposed to be coming from Persia is not really coming from Persia anyway. That army is in fact coming from India. If we start early we can connect Delhi through the Himalaya pass to the N with the silk road. If two more Workers starts building a road in the direction NW starting in Urgench, then we can shorten the travel from Delhi to Wladimir from 6 turns to 3 turns. If eventually Kiew will not be the last thing we conquer with the India/Russia army then that still gives three extra turns to send it S for Constantinople.
Military strategy
General observations
In this scenario we have 100 turns to capture every other civilization, but we don't need to conquer the city states. Thus we have to conquer 30 cities in 100 turns, or one about every three turns. More or less inevitably we will also take Xi-Xia, and we can consider adding either Almaty or Uiguren while we are in the area. Both provide additional Horses, and especially Almaty lies in a bottle neck. Being a Military cs they will also give additional units right away. All things considered we have 100 turns to take ~32 cities. By just maneuvering around one force this is basically impossible. Getting our forces from one city into position in front of the next city takes always at least one turn, and besieging a city often takes more than two turns. That means we can only win by splitting our forces and/or getting cities in peace deals. However, the problem with peace deals is that we cannot attack the civ for 10 turns, so we will have to go back and they also have time to rebuild their forces. So peace deals only make sense when we either get cities that are extrordinarily tough to conquer like Tabriz and Kamakuro, or when we are staying in the area anyway (even if we came back anyway, giving them more than 10 turns to rebuild won't do).
The Plan
Part One -- The East
1 Xi-Xia -- The first thing we have to do is going south. We need the 15 Gold from meeting Xi-Xia to upgrade two Horsemen to Keshiks. Now we could ignore the cs, but in the long run we need their 2 Horses anyway, and the boost of two additional units early on is invaluable, so this is our first target. We will DoW on turn 2. It is often important to DoW early, because if we DoW before meeting more civs, that saves us the hit in their opinion, and consequently giving us better chances to betray them. Actually the moment we meet Jin-China we will trade all of our ressources to them, and then DoW right away. They pose not threat to use, we will DoW anyway, and this saves us the hit in China's opinion. We will meet them quickly afterwards and will soon war them, too. Woever we need to leech a bunch of gold from them as well, and for that we need their best possible opinion. Anyway our units should be in position to attack on the second turn. Our Horsemen will take out theirs and our Keshiks will bombard their city right away. It might be possible to conquer Xi-Xian in turn 3. In turn 4 it will definitely be ours.
2 Beijing, Kaifend, Liaoyang -- Now we can go SW and attack China's Chengdu, or SE towards Jin-China's Xian. Xian feels like the natural course, because it is closer. However, the best thing might actually be to go for Beijing right away. We can conquer that city with ease when coming from N and NW. Doing so will get the Great Wall under our control which will save us many moves when conquering the rest of Jin-China, and basically makes it impossible for China to move within our territory. Hitting them hard also has the advantage of leading to a quick peace settlement in which we can probably get Liaoyang. Getting Liaoyang is desirable because it does not only save us a siege, it also prevents us from having to do a detour. If all goes perfect Beijing falls around turn 9-10, then we press S for Kaifeng, and after conquering that accept Liaoyang in exchange for not bothering them for 10 turns. This should be around turn 14. Getting these cities presents us with new decisions: puppet, annex, or raze them? Kaifeng holds no strategic value whatsoever, and not even their spices offset the hit in happiness. Eventually Delhi will grow into Spices anyway. Beijing cannot be razed, but is not of great value either, so it must be puppeted. Liaoyang is a bit more interesting. My natural inclination always went towards razing it, but in the long run we might be short on Iron, and the additional Horses help, too. Finally the city has access to a currently unimproved Gold source which can offset the happiness hit, and we are not going to have permanent control over another source of Gold. There are a couple of courses I can see pursuing here. Razing and be done with it is one option. Then we might keep the city and puppet it. We might also keep the city and raze it down to one citizen, then never let it grow again. This has the advantage that we can later use it as a wharf to launch the ships that will help us conquering Japan. These ships will be bought with coin anyway, so doing it in a small city is no problem.
3 Xiangyang, Tanzhou, Hangzhou -- The next close cities are Xiangyang and Hangzhou. Pressing immediately for the capital was a nice strategy against Jin-China. The disadvantage here is that we cannot conquer Hangzhou with a Horseman from the N, and going in from the W leaves the Horseman vulnerable if we don't conquer Xiangyang and Tanzhou first. Xiangyang is free loot anyway. Before DoWing that we should trade all our resources to China for maximum value, and upgrade all but one Horseman for Keshiks. Xiangyang should then fall in two or three turns depending on the number of armies that need to be eliminated in its vicinity. Next up is Tanzhou. We can safely bombard that city from across the river. Meanwhile our Horseman fords the river towards the Forest in the W. Tanzhou should fall around turn 20. It is is of no value and should be razed. Afterwards our Keshiks swing E towards the capital. It is not necessary for all of our Keshiks to cross the river towards the S. We will need some later to attack Guangzhou, but two can either start working on Xian or go to Korea after capturing Hangzhou. Although Hangzhou is quite strong it should fall within the next four turns, around 24. We cannot raze that being a former. If it should be puppeted or annexed depends on whether we want this to be our wharf. The city has powerful resources and it is well positioned for a wharf if we take into account that we are not attacking Japan with Triremes, but with ships that can sail the ocean. So I believe the best course is to annex, and buy a courthouse from the 1000 gold we get for eliminating Jin-China.
4 Guangzhou, Xian, Korea, Chengdu -- Guangzhou is mainly a matter of going there and taking it. The place is completely worthless and should be razed immediately. Meanwhile the Keshiks that stayed N of the Yangtze River can soften up Xian or go to Korea. Probably they should go towards Korea. Jin-China cannot defend itself at all anyway. If Liaoyang was annexed before we can now use it to buy a Swordsman there to conquer Korea with. Our main force will now proceed to take Xian and then Chengdu from the N. Both should be more or less without defense and pose no problem. They are also worthless and should be razed. Some of my estimates might have been a bit optimistic, but even allowing for some delays this should have happened by turn 35.
Conclusion
We now have 12 horses under our control and should have 1500-2000 gold left even allowing for a courthouse in Hangzhou. Most of that should be spent on troops. We can support 10 Keshiks and 2 Horsemen with our horses. Thus we have the resources to dispatch two 4/1 armies to the W, while sending two Keshiks to conquer Korea. Buying further units with the remaining gold seems useful as they can serve triple duty. They can kill some of the roaring barbarians and thus protect our resources, their mere presence as garrison gives a much needed boost in happiness, and finally again their mere presence serves to make an impression upon our opponents. Even when not close to the front lines these units represent military strength and that might help to get a good peace deal from Persia eventually.
