Dawn of the Middle Kingdom [DoC]

Sweet Catherine.



Qin Shi Huang did not notice it immediately, but he wondered what had happened to Peter, his loyal vassal.
While sauntering around in the Russian Palace in Novgorod, he contemplated his disappearance as he tightened the sash around his bathrobe.
Waltzing into his private suite, he was a little shocked to find a woman in her birthday suit laying across the silken bed.

Wait a minute, the immortal President Emperor (in the bedroom, he always holds that title) thought.
Girls Aloud was still in Luoyang and he didn't remember taking any more concubines for his harem.

"You don't remember?"

"In this document," Catherine read as the scroll draped over her Assets folder.
"It was agreed that I would take over as head of state for Russia when the appropriate time period came up."

"Who came up with that arrangement?" Qin Shi Huang asked.

"Why, Leoreth did. It's there in the code."

"That makes no sense, but I'm not complaining." he replied.

"Close the doors, dearest.
There are many games we must play. ;)"



(Okay, I was channeling some Flouzemaker there, but we can talk strategy now. :lol:)

Catherine, and by extension, Russia, to put it bluntly, is best waifu.
She gobbles up massive tracts of land without losing stability.
She techs on an almost Western European tier so you can trade with her.
Most AIs are horrible in combat, but if she needs to fight a defensive war to help
secure your flank, you can count on her to survive with General Winter.
For Conquest, you can count on her to take Eastern European & Mongolian cities off your hands.
For Domination, she can easily account for anywhere between 3-7% of the needed land limit all on her own.
Russia also holds the distinction of being a very readily accessible vassal to acquire for anybody.

There are two opportune moments to be able to vassalize them:
1) During the Mongol conqueror invasions, you have a window of opportunity to snag them there.
2) If they were completely annihilated by the Mongols/Germans/Vikings,
their respawn period is a great time to vassalize them.

In general, I would like to embellish here some of the best vassals in DoC and good times to get them:
China: They are practically guaranteed to collapse after the Mongols spawn, so you'll have to wait for them to respawn.
Depending on how weak they were, you may have to raze some Mongol/independent cities to put them at a correct power level to vassalize.
They are a good trade partner and can gobble up lots of Mongol/Japanese land.
This is especially key if you happen to be playing Japan, which appears to be explosively popular in Civ4 S&T nowadays.
Unless you're brave enough to hold onto that Chinese core and face heightened risk of respawn/rebirth,
you are much better off vassalizing them and saving your Settlers for North America.
This is of course, my opinion, but anyone can take me up and try to put both methods into practice.
Mongols: I've gone over this before, but Mongolia's predisposition ensures that they'll get into a lot of trouble (and a lot of land).
They are a fairly decent vassal in most respects otherwise.
Inca: Not a particularly notable vassal otherwise,
but they offer themselves quite easily at almost any time and from what I've seen many others do,
they accept South American cities very often, contributing a sizable amount of land area.
Arabia: I've almost never been able to vassalize them, but theoretically,
they are very good vassals for their stability map.
A good thing in DoC is that Arabia is practically guaranteed to die, but it's not really guaranteed that they'll respawn.
When they do, they are a very premium vassal to try and obtain.
Ottomans: They are a bit weaker in DoC than in vanilla RFC, because of the presence of the Byzantines,
but they will vassalize readily when threatened and can grow to huge proportions. Definitely up there in land proportions.
Any of the Western European countries, minus Germany:
For obvious reasons, the Western Euros expand very quickly and can accept many different cities.
We don't vassalize Germany because they're landlocked.
Tips on how to vassalize them are to play the political background.
Keep contacts in Europe to keep track of the situation.
Vikings pushing hard against the English? Prime-time to vassalize.
Dutch/Portugal feeling threatened by France/Germany/Spain? Again, it's time to go.
(Maria II happens to be really pretty, too)
And remember, when a civ newly respawns, that's the best chance you get.



Oh. And we get Rifling.
But that's not really important.
 
Tips on how to vassalize them are to play the political background
I'd like to add here: after the Reformation. England usually gets into trouble then, I took them as a free vassal as France.
And how are 25% stronger sea ponies not important? :lol:
 
I have plans to make now with DoC; looks really good from what I have seen! :)
 
I've attempted to play a bit of a shadow game, however, I have found it impossible to pull off the massive trading spree you went on in the early game. I am unable to trade math to anyone, getting wfyabta, and alphabet will not net all the goodies. monarchy especially seems impossible to get for alphabet alone, and persia is uninterested in math (wfyabta). what gives?
 
You have to do it a certain order.
Doing it outside of that order will result in civs refusing to trade.

Go in this order:
Greece->India (Priesthood)->Greece->Persia (Monarchy)->
later on, any surviving civs will trade you things like HBR (usually Egypt/Phoenicia)

I can provide a save game, if you'd like.
 
Any of the Western European countries, minus Germany:
For obvious reasons, the Western Euros expand very quickly and can accept many different cities.
We don't vassalize Germany because they're landlocked.

Is this Prussia or the HRE? Cause both have a good opportunity to get access to the ocean.

Funny, this reminds me of how easily Germany gets vassalized in only my games :p. In a Khmer game, Germany, Portugal, and China were Spain's vassals.
 
1.81 so just the HRE.

They don't have a very high inclination to setup colonies,
making them a really poor choice for vassal.
I am currently attempting Japanese Domination though, and they actually settled New Guinea, which I've only seen in one other game.
 
1.81 so just the HRE.

They don't have a very high inclination to setup colonies,
making them a really poor choice for vassal.
I am currently attempting Japanese Domination though, and they actually settled New Guinea, which I've only seen in one other game.

Oh, well that clears things up. I've seen German New Guinea before, but only as the Mayans, where I have completely no influence on them. And good luck on your Japanese Domination!
 
@jammerculture: If you're interested, I've included an earlier save (1 turn before Calendar) for you or anyone interested to shadow from.

@Bair_The_Normal: Thanks, but I think I might have to scrap it. The Europeans are growing like weeds.
I have uploaded a save in the DoC Domination Challenge thread if you think you can try it as well.

Peaceful Stuff.



During their tour of East Francia,
the Sea Pony horde discovers that Wien is lightly defended.
Also the Dutch are finally dead in this screenshot.
Although because they settled two South African cities,
they still actually have a chance of respawning.
But at least they won't be on Europe.



We also complete Westminister Palace, which helps
us rushbuy/hurry things cheaper (although I almost never rushbuy)
Not like in Civilization Revolution, where rushbuying is pretty much king.



The second point of the American Triangle is settled; Louisiana.
Tonight, these Chinese settlers feast on Cajun shrimp and Jambalaya.



We get a Grocers' event in Shenyang with gives us a welcome +1 Food.
Word for players attempting China; the Shenyang spot is really great,
you just have to compromise with the fact that it's on top of
a late-spawning Corn resource, which shouldn't be too big of a deal.



And in the last picture here, we get a good shot of our good friends,
the Irish. If one wishes to invade Ireland though, it would be best to settle 1N of Dublin before the city spawns or simply raze and resettle.
I'm fine with leaving them alone since they never did nothing to nobody and won't ever have the potential to bother me.
That's also a basic doctrine of mine in DoC.
Ignore civs that don't present a threat.
Civs that shouldn't be high on the priority list are generally:

-Southeast Asian civs (Khmer, Thai)
-Mesoamerican civs (Aztec, Maya, Inca)
-African civs (Mali, Ethiopia)
-Corea
-Egypt
-Indonesia

Late-Game only:
-Greece
-Vikings
-Mongolia
-Iran
 

Attachments

  • Qin Shi Huang Iron Age Turn 106.CivBeyondSwordSave
    174.6 KB · Views: 48
thanks for the save. i always play the latest svn though. i have a feeling that leoreth might have changed something to prevent that level of tech trading opportunities, it seems like something he'd do, always wrecking our fun lol

this is a great story thread though. it is becoming one of my favorites, up there with the byzantine conquest thread from sword of islam. keep up the good work.

ps, what is up with the "cookies" in your sig. i feel as though i am missing something epic
 
ps, what is up with the "cookies" in your sig. i feel as though i am missing something epic

Basically, people give cookies that a represented for doing something. They sometimes come with a smiley and then you put them in your signature. Here, I'll give you one now:

Ninja's uber-rare not knowing about cookies cookie :espionage:

((Copy/Paste this into your signature)):

Proud owner of a Ninja's uber-rare not knowing about cookies cookie ( :espionage: ). Now I know about cookies!
 
Ibiza! Ibiza!



After years spent covertly destabilizing West Francia,
the Spanish throw off the yoke of the French and
liberate their cities! This is quite wonderful,
despite them not getting back all their cities.



Qin Shi Huang adds the rebel queen, Isabella,
to his harem and Spain officially joins the SCO.



Something I've rarely seen happen before:
An AI liberating cities to another AI.
This helps me out though, as Russia
is getting stabilized from this.



This latest stability boost comes from my vassalization of Spain.
Our Economy continues to rise as it really is the only thing
keeping our heads above the water.
 
Nice. In RFC, the Economy is typically the thing that either brings me down or props me up. Good work Dawn. :)
 
The Dutch are reduced to one little outpost in South Africa.
SCO forces do not pursue however, for Die Antwoord was projecting their image
from the lighthouse, terrifying all the ships that came near.



(I actually like Die Antwoord, for the record)
Yeah, Die Antwoord has some disturbing videos :eek:
 
That is the scariest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. :eek:
 
@Tycho: Try actually watching the video that the screencap is from.
Search for "I Fink U Freeky" by Die Antwoord on YouTube.

Space Is The Place.



The third American Triangle spot is settled.
It just occurred to me that areas around the Rockies
would make for some killer Inca city spots.
I'd try it if I wasn't too busy trying to
fight off conquerors first.



Also, this has to be one of my favorite parts of the mod.
Leoreth gave China city names on the West Coast,
as it already should have been in vanilla.
The four city sites there that get names are:

Wen Gehua= Vancouver
Xi Yatu= Seattle
San Fanshi= San Francisco
(Jiu Jinshan if China conquers San Francisco)
Luo Shanji= Los Angeles



The Sea Pony horde assembles in London.
We have them hold the fort there because
Congress is coming up. And with Congress
coming up, we'll be ready to react to any wars
with the two major powers, West & East Francia
if they get butthurt and refuse a city reassignment.



How fitting, the Congress of Vienna.
 
Alright... I have to ask this....

Why? Are do you keep hitting 'enter' after each 7-10th word?

Most of the time it doesn't bother me, but sometimes it does and this is one of those times which is why I ask (and I'm drunk)
 
My laptop's screen is about 36cm wide, so I view everything wide screen.
On my old laptop, I didn't really have that issue (20-24cm wide) and
stuff that I typed didn't look wider than the actual pictures I was uploading.
To me, it's a little bit more aesthetically pleasing if I post my paragraphs this way.
 
Why? Are do you keep hitting 'enter' after each 7-10th word?
It's Free Verse.

Killing civs like the Dutch/Portugese actually hurts your Domination efforts, because more civs being alive means lower Domination Threshold. You can simply declare (post MS/Privateers) on them, and park a few Destroyers next to Amsterdam and kill all their navy. They will be limited to 1 city and not collapse, which helps your Domination.
 
Top Bottom