Can anyone give me a few tips on winning the Crossroads of the World Mod? I just played as the Ethopians on Warlord and got stomped. Even had I not been destroyed I would have lost to the Chinese in the upper right. who had 5 times the amount of money I had. I figured out the guild expansion issue into the few cities which allow it, but that did not generate enough cash, and the time I spent doing so left me militarily vulnerable. Thoughts?
Crossroads of the World
- Thread starter thelebk
- Start date
Chinese? I don't remember them being in the game.
I've won on my typical difficulty level, as the Egyptians (I think they are called Mamluks...have Hannibal's leaderhead). The key is to focus on your guild expansion as much as you can, but really to invade and sack enemy guild headquarters. That gives you a crudload of gold. And, if possible, adopt Mercantilism if enemy guilds are spreading in your cities and consuming your resources/providing your enemies with money.
I remember my strategy was very combat-heavy for victory, if that's any help.
I've won on my typical difficulty level, as the Egyptians (I think they are called Mamluks...have Hannibal's leaderhead). The key is to focus on your guild expansion as much as you can, but really to invade and sack enemy guild headquarters. That gives you a crudload of gold. And, if possible, adopt Mercantilism if enemy guilds are spreading in your cities and consuming your resources/providing your enemies with money.
I remember my strategy was very combat-heavy for victory, if that's any help.
Thanks for the reply. I was hoping for a little more detail, perhaps an AAR. The Chinese backed faction (NE Corner) I think is called the "Timureds" or some such thing. Since guilds can only be spread to the 5-6 cities that have access to the special resources, the enemy players cannot spread their guild to the players' cities. Thus I do not worry about that, unless I conquer one of the 5-6 cities from the AI.
I think those are actually supposed to be a Mongolian offshoot, but I know who you are referring to now.
I ended up conquering many more cities, than 5-6, just because every time I sacked a major player's cities, I got gold ranging in the several hundreds, and I hampered their income as well.
Also, don't run science at a deficit in this game, as you might do in ordinary Civ...run 10% or 20% lower than you normally do. This will give you another cash boost.
You can also use great merchants as cash bombs or super specialists...I had one city dedicated to merchant specialists (Alexandria, I think), and I added great merchants as super specialists, and used the food boost to run more merchants.
I ended up conquering many more cities, than 5-6, just because every time I sacked a major player's cities, I got gold ranging in the several hundreds, and I hampered their income as well.
Also, don't run science at a deficit in this game, as you might do in ordinary Civ...run 10% or 20% lower than you normally do. This will give you another cash boost.
You can also use great merchants as cash bombs or super specialists...I had one city dedicated to merchant specialists (Alexandria, I think), and I added great merchants as super specialists, and used the food boost to run more merchants.
Just played another game on Warlord and won this time with only 2 turns left in the game. One important lesson I learned is to not accept vassal states. You cannot break the vassalage arrangement, and thus cannot attack them when you are ready to. The vassals actually had more gold towards a commerce victory than the "real" players and I could not torpedo them... Each conquered city as yielding about 500 gold as plunder, a conquered enemy Coporate HQ about 10,000. I also noticed a few oddities.
1) Some of the cities that have a lessor guild for your guild to link up with do NOT let your expand into them. Very odd. After conquering the burburs (yellow guys in egypt) and taking over thier HQ, they were able to expand into that city where my guildmaster was not. thoughts?
2) How do you get spies to "steal treasury" in this game? I move a spy to an enemy city, have enough espoionage points to run the mission, attempt it and it gives a drop down menu after selecting steal treasury (city target maybe?) where the only option is "nothing". I had spies in every opponent, and not one of them was able to get the steal treasury command to work.
3) Why can some cities set their production to produce wealth but not others? This is how I won the game...
1) Some of the cities that have a lessor guild for your guild to link up with do NOT let your expand into them. Very odd. After conquering the burburs (yellow guys in egypt) and taking over thier HQ, they were able to expand into that city where my guildmaster was not. thoughts?
2) How do you get spies to "steal treasury" in this game? I move a spy to an enemy city, have enough espoionage points to run the mission, attempt it and it gives a drop down menu after selecting steal treasury (city target maybe?) where the only option is "nothing". I had spies in every opponent, and not one of them was able to get the steal treasury command to work.
3) Why can some cities set their production to produce wealth but not others? This is how I won the game...
Jason T
Chieftain
One funny thing that I found (pre-patch, so I don't know if it was corrected) is that every time you capture a guild HQ, you get ~10,000 gold in plunder. I was playing as the Rasulids and took the Ethiopian guild city, then lost it, and retook it. 20,000 gold, just like that 
Yeah that sounds like an exploit, I hope they fixed it. 
It reminds me of civ I-II. At the higher skill levels the human player no longer bothered with research. He would just take an enemy city for the free tech, then leave it unguarded. The enemy would retake it, and the human would immediate take it back for anotehr free tech etc...
It reminds me of civ I-II. At the higher skill levels the human player no longer bothered with research. He would just take an enemy city for the free tech, then leave it unguarded. The enemy would retake it, and the human would immediate take it back for anotehr free tech etc...Jason T
Chieftain
Yes, yes. I remember those days. I was a Civ player when I was a freshman in college, back in '93. Fun times.
Rambuchan
The Funky President
I've won this on my usual level with the Ottomans and can second the advice given by Antilogic.
I couldn't found my guilds in any cities, so I just went the hardcore military plunder route, especially against the Mameluks who presented the main competition. Once you've got Janissaries, and later canons, this is pretty easy to do with the Ottomans.
I couldn't found my guilds in any cities, so I just went the hardcore military plunder route, especially against the Mameluks who presented the main competition. Once you've got Janissaries, and later canons, this is pretty easy to do with the Ottomans.
sakhr
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2007
- Messages
- 122
I have finished the game with the Rasuls first i invade jiddah then settle in jordan then oman and zanzibar the island of the south so i have a hand on the available gold and silver, after few turns its time to conquer baghdad and balance my techs between military and economics and try to stay calm for a few turns construct some banks and tribunals its a matter of time to generate 500+ gold also if there is someone who is near victory i just train raiders and sack his mines the ottomans will invade anithoch and nearby cities i just try to defend until the end. et voila
The Timurid empire was essentially an offshoot of the Chagatai Horde, one of the successor states to the Genghis Mongols. Samarkand was their capital. However, the region by the time of Timur (Tamerlane the Great) was mostly Turkic ethnically, Moslem, but Persian culture was dominant. It was a powerhouse at its height under Tamerlane, but when he died inthe early 15th century it splintered. However, the Moghul Empire of Babur was an offshoot of the Timurid empire.
Best wihses,
Breunor
Wow, I just played for the first time, and tried Ethiopia. I went down a level from my normal one, and I got stomped also -- wow, the worst wipe out in a long time. When I went to war with Egypt, the whole world turned on me. They also had a LOT of gold accumulating fast.
I also can't figure out what went wrong so fast. The two guildmasters I started with got kicked out of the cities they spread to, and life got tough.
Best wishes,
Breunor
I just won the game with the Ottomans. I have to admit, I am really enjoying it.
It kind of reminds me of a culture victory game in regular Civ. IF you spread your corporations, build banks, even get a wall street, with some techs, have 5-7 cities, you can generate 800 gold a turn and win the game VERY quickly. However, if you try this, you have to worry about the military situation.
the game balances well. Yous tart ready to get powerful, advanced techs, and can go for the techs for cannons, riflemen, cavalry, or the money techs. These are large war technological leaps. So, go for military, build up, somebody somewhere else may pull off a money victory.
My suggestion -- pick a strategy (pure wealth, with enough power to defend yourself) or pure military, with enough money to get techs. With the Ottomans, you get a lot of hammers so you have to use them. Ethiopia has to worry about being Christian and having a lot of people not like you, but have the advantage of not having a civilization in their rear.
Breunor
It kind of reminds me of a culture victory game in regular Civ. IF you spread your corporations, build banks, even get a wall street, with some techs, have 5-7 cities, you can generate 800 gold a turn and win the game VERY quickly. However, if you try this, you have to worry about the military situation.
the game balances well. Yous tart ready to get powerful, advanced techs, and can go for the techs for cannons, riflemen, cavalry, or the money techs. These are large war technological leaps. So, go for military, build up, somebody somewhere else may pull off a money victory.
My suggestion -- pick a strategy (pure wealth, with enough power to defend yourself) or pure military, with enough money to get techs. With the Ottomans, you get a lot of hammers so you have to use them. Ethiopia has to worry about being Christian and having a lot of people not like you, but have the advantage of not having a civilization in their rear.
Breunor
Yes, I think Ethiopia has to be careful. Their advantage is that there is no Civ to their rear. But I think you have to build a few cities first, and then wait until Egypt or the Rashids go to war and then pile in. Anyway, that is what I would try if I play again.
Best wishes,
Breunor
I played it a few times and it's easy up to Prince level.
I played two different civs - sorry, don't remember the names : the one on the top right and the one at the bottom left.
My strategy is to take over the non-Major civ all around by having one city building 6knights right away to take over the 3 longbows in each cities. Then one or two settlers and a workers. Be very friendly with all the Major civs and give them all they ask if necessary.
Once building is done in your two major cities, build only and only units and put them in your border cities (beware of the Egyptian above all when playing the civ top-right.)
Quite frankly, I don't bother with the Guild stuff. I send my two Guildmasters at the beginning of the game in the two cities I'll conquer a few turns later and that's it. And I kill the one or two Guildmasters trying to make business in my cities.
Once you come close to 20000, wars will break out, that's about when the Majors got the Infantery and/or Artillery. They'll spend money to upgrade their unit.
My advice is to keep low, 3-5000 gold behind all the main leaders so they'll fight each others.
Once you get to 20000, you are in danger. Produce unit with the underdevelopped cities, just to guard your borders, stop research, have your 2-4 main cities turn to producing gold. At this stage, you should be able to produce between 600-1000 a turn, and that's enough to hold against a massive Egyptian invasion for a few turns, time for you to win.
Note that your oponents research will have a considerable boost towards the end, so be friendly with the new coming civs and trade with them (the Majors won't). The basic idea is for you to have the Infantery when your coffer reach 20000.
Note> Ethiopia is sure a very powerful enemy, but with those two civs in the corners I've tried, this civ is too far away to be a real threat to you.
Oh, and if you're Christian, be sure to convert ASAP to Islam. It's no good to be a Christian in this game.
I played two different civs - sorry, don't remember the names : the one on the top right and the one at the bottom left.
My strategy is to take over the non-Major civ all around by having one city building 6knights right away to take over the 3 longbows in each cities. Then one or two settlers and a workers. Be very friendly with all the Major civs and give them all they ask if necessary.
Once building is done in your two major cities, build only and only units and put them in your border cities (beware of the Egyptian above all when playing the civ top-right.)
Quite frankly, I don't bother with the Guild stuff. I send my two Guildmasters at the beginning of the game in the two cities I'll conquer a few turns later and that's it. And I kill the one or two Guildmasters trying to make business in my cities.
Once you come close to 20000, wars will break out, that's about when the Majors got the Infantery and/or Artillery. They'll spend money to upgrade their unit.
My advice is to keep low, 3-5000 gold behind all the main leaders so they'll fight each others.
Once you get to 20000, you are in danger. Produce unit with the underdevelopped cities, just to guard your borders, stop research, have your 2-4 main cities turn to producing gold. At this stage, you should be able to produce between 600-1000 a turn, and that's enough to hold against a massive Egyptian invasion for a few turns, time for you to win.
Note that your oponents research will have a considerable boost towards the end, so be friendly with the new coming civs and trade with them (the Majors won't). The basic idea is for you to have the Infantery when your coffer reach 20000.
Note> Ethiopia is sure a very powerful enemy, but with those two civs in the corners I've tried, this civ is too far away to be a real threat to you.
Oh, and if you're Christian, be sure to convert ASAP to Islam. It's no good to be a Christian in this game.
Where are these special resources? Do they pop up later on in the scenario? Because I can't seem to spread my guilds in the game. The problem seems to be lack of access to these special resources (Bananas, Clams, Gems, Silk, and Fur).
Jason T
Chieftain
This one took me a long time to figure out, and I could still be remembering this wrong. However, if you study the map, you'll notice that there are guilds on the map other than the ones controlled by the majors. Those guilds turn the map resources into the ones that your guild needs to spread. So the real object is to hook your trade guilds up with the ones that make your resources.
EDIT:
As an example, the Fishmongers of Cyprus consumes Wine, Spice, Ivory, and Dye. They produce Clams. Move your guild into a city that already houses the Fishmongers of Cyprus, obtain those resources, and the Clams come rolling in - literally and figuratively
The Guilds that produce what you need all correspond to the non-Major civilizations. This is clearly an encouragement towards aggression - capture those cities, begin spreading their guilds, and then hook yours up with theirs.
Ok, I think that makes sense. Simply put I just gotta hook my guild up to the minor guilds, correct? Not the Major guilds. And that's only if the minor guild is currently producing one of the 5 key resources.
Wow, could they have NOT explained that any better in the Civilopedia for this MOD?
So far, I've been fairly disappointed with the vast majority of the extra mods and scenarios that were included with BtS, and even Warlords. Some are great, of course, but most seem like they were included more as a template to give us, the fans, ideas on how to use the new game mechanics to create interesting mods. Crossroads, obviously, focuses on the new Corporations.
Wow, could they have NOT explained that any better in the Civilopedia for this MOD?
So far, I've been fairly disappointed with the vast majority of the extra mods and scenarios that were included with BtS, and even Warlords. Some are great, of course, but most seem like they were included more as a template to give us, the fans, ideas on how to use the new game mechanics to create interesting mods. Crossroads, obviously, focuses on the new Corporations.
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