The Immortal Challenge Lineup - Game #32 Mongolia

I really liked this map for being so wide open. It did have a couple finger peninsulas, but only one spawned any civs. It seems hard to roll a Pangea without a lot of fingers and no ice blockage at both poles, even with high sea levels.

This game I did Honor and almost finished Commerce. Took God-King pantheon and took Tithe and Monasteries, then Asceticism and Itin Preachers.

I settled in place and expo'd NE and S.

Arabia was kind enough to build SH and HG for me, which made for a nice first cap, t98. Sukhothai t130, Vienna t138 (ND and Pyramids), Rio t153, Carthage (Alex nearly killed her off) t167, Athens t175. Wu had the GW, so she kept Alex at bay. I burned 4 Citadels to kill her.

I played a second Liberty game half-way, 6-7 cities before conquest started. That game I didn't chop much which helped the capital's production, and settled 1st expo further NE to get the Gems - much better city, though slower growing at first.

In every single Firetuner playthrough I did with Khan (about 25 on 15 different maps) he ALWAYS went Tradition!

3 city liberty and chivalry before education. The 1st army of keshiks ready around T110 or so. Arabia, Austria and Siam eliminated in that order.

Meanwhile building the 2nd army and Brazil is out too. Then both armies combined - the 1st one takes Carthage and the 2nd army takes Athens. And then again both armies together take out China.

Full liberty, commerce (cheaper road maintenance) and rationalism (secularism). Happiness was not really an issue till the very end. Gold was not a major problem either.

Surely this map can be finished much faster but logistics keshiks are fine even at T180.

So why too slow? Well Honor completed early 70's, 3 city NC mid 80's, Mecca taken with CA attack early 90's and I had to Raze Damascus in the way and replace it and buy library.

This should rock but I dilly-dallied by training my CA by shooting up Medina rather than making peace and training them vs Austria and then Rammy.

I had an extra SP prior to opening Commerce so I took Liberty. This lead to Citizenship and the free worker and Pyramids giving me all the super workers needed.

LOL Rammy and Enrico decided to DOW me. The Honor income from killing their pathetic units with my super CA was nice. Soon I had Keshiks and left them both with ruined 1 expo empires.

The chubby Austrian Maria then DOWed me and after taking a city, it was clear that the world hated me so everyone in the east had to go to their heaven or hell.

6 Khan will aid me in getting thru to Beijing and ending this

Arabia to Austria to Siam

Game went surprisingly smoothly. Scouted the 2 religious CS early, so I had first choice of pantheon. I picked Sun God because of the multiple wheat. I only got to found the 5th religion T85. I picked Ceremonial Burial and Asceticism. I didn't bother to enhance it since all other happiness enhancing beliefs were already taken. I focused on spreading my religion. One of my cities converted to Islam (Arabia) due to passive conversion then I got to purchase a Pagoda.

I went 3-city Honor. I didn't get the chance to kill too many barbarians for extra culture. T84 NC and T112 Chivalry. Finished Honor 2 turns later. I really neglected culture this game, but I guess I didn't need anything else. I started my push just after with 1 Horseman and 3 Keshiks. I suppose I built too many buildings early game and not enough units. Maybe I could have ended the game earlier with 2 armies instead of just one with the same timing. I didn't bother to connect conquered capitals with roads, but still finished with 3K+ gold acquired mainly from conquests. I let some cities live to foster the spread of my religion. Also, I didn't lose a single Keshik the whole game.

I managed happiness really well this game. Only dipping 2 consecutive turns into unhappiness the entire game. Staying allied to Lhasa the whole time (Silk), having 10 cities following Tengriism (+5 happiness with Ceremonial Burial) & allying Cahokia when I was swimming in cash (+3 hap, Porcelain, Fur?) also helped.