Tips for playing the Mongols.

[@war]

I am wanting to use Genghis Khan but I just dont play him to his strenghts. And I think his UU seems more useful for Mp than against the computer. He is geared for war that much is obvious. However you cant conquer everything in a day so if I were wanting to get the most of his abilities would I just war alot and raze for experience and loot? And can I get some advice on how to keep your economy going dring frequent warring? I wont be playing him to win so much as to be a terror to the AI. I will be trying to use him on Prince with aggressive AI or monarch. I just finished a warm up game with him but it turned into a space race and I didnt even fight a war until the very end because I spent the whole game trying to develop all the land that was available at the start.

[Rancid Sushi]

Keshiks may be weak, but they're very mobile. Use them to pillage enemy cottages and resource improvements during a campaign. The extra gold will allow you to keep from going bankrupt for a few more turns while your main force marches through conquering cities. You may have to take your research down a few notches, but it's okay as long as you've adequately prepared for war so that it doesn't drag on too long (that is, you've built enough units to take each city in a few turns or less). Aggr/Imperial means your units will generally have more promotions than the enemy, which means it will take less units to do the same job. It also means creating settlers won't slow down your cities as much, which leaves more time for unit production. Also, this trait allows you to raze cities which are 1 tile away from being supercities (the AI loves to build these) and resettle the area before others can. Never raze holy cities, they're worth gold if you can get the shrine. You can keep up in the tech race by being powerful and warring for techs you don't have. That is, you should go for a blitzkrieg and sue for peace (demand gold/techs in return for a peace treaty). Always try to stay ahead in military techs and trade/war for others that you may need. Again, the money from pillaging, conquering, trading and suing will be your main source of income. It's unlikely that you can secure an early religion since you don't start with Mysticism, but you can get a later one like Taoism if you're running specialists (scientists will pop for important techs like Paper and Philosophy). The earlier you can start a war, the better. Just don't go in with too few units, this will kill the rest of your game. Beeline Bronzeworking before going for AH and HBR. You can rush earlier with axemen than you can Keshiks most of the time. Okay, experts, did I miss anything?

P.S: I try to place my second city in a good production spot, near a few hills and at least one food source. This city can usually start producing units very early.

[Sisiutil]

I'll be playing as Kublai Khan in the next ALC game (whose only difference from Genghis is 1 trait). The thread is sure to have lots of tips for playing as the Mongols: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showth...57#post5182057

[Breunor]

I'm only a Monarch player, not one of the giants on the forum, but here are a few of the tips I found useful.

* Don't overexpand. You want to start attacking in that axemen cavalry archer spearman period, which is usually before courthouses. If you take a bunch of cities, having settled quite a few of your own, you'll go bankrupt. Besides, it's fun to let other people pay the expense of the settlers

*Secondly, pick your civics to gear up to the war machine. If you have the ger (your unique building, a super stable) a barracks, and theocracy and vassalage, your cavalry will have a whopping 11 starting experience points, enough for three levels of upgrades. Your infantry will have 7 enough for two upgrades on top of your starting combat for being Aggressive.

*Don't be hesitant to simply burn cities if you don't think they are profitable. Psychologically it's hard to do, (I spent all this effort grabbing the city, and I'm not even going to keep it!) but when the money runs tight, it's necessary.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes

Breunor.

[Yakk]

Don't underexpand. If you are running 30% science and breaking even, that is acceptable. Hitting 0% science gets dangerous. Build some cottage-spam cities, and over time even a 0% science rate will crawl upwards.

Don't be afraid to use cavalry to take cities. Even if they have a spearman or two defending, you can overload them by tossing low-xp horsies at them.

Don't make every city a metropolis. There comes a time when the city should just sit back and pump out an army.

Think about playing on marathon/epic -- it lets you have more fun during your UU period.

Do befriend at least one nation. Try to get that nation to be pissed off at everyone else, so you can use them as a war ally.

Do decide which cites are worth taking, and which are going to be razed and not replaced. Leave the cottages around cities worth taking.

Do try to get catepults -- it makes taking capital cities much easier.

Do be afraid of feudalism, but realize that high-xp elephants can beat longbowmen, and spearmen can be overloaded.

Do be willing to strike early and steal less defended cities and/or settlers. You will be conquoring nearby civilizations anyhow, why not slow them down.

You are in a rush to attack. Every turn the enemy city defence could notch up a bit.

Try to keep enemy capitals -- they have a sick number of goodies.

Slavery is powerful -- be willing to sacrafice your population to pop a huge army. Population shrinkage is temporary, and conquest is forever.

Think about expanding until you hit 20% science, then go to peace and rebuild your economy.

This isn't all Mongol based advice, but rather warmonger based advice.

[Lance of Llanwy]

Keshiks are brutally effective raiders. You may wish to invade one civ and send a stack of Keshiks against another, pillaging all the way. Or you could just unify them. Keshiks can be fairly terrifying if used right. What is best to do with them is vary their promotion line...have two main groups: combat, and flanking. Obviously, the Flanking ones start taking combat after Flanking 2, but the combat ones go wherever. Formation, Shock, whatever....