Role Play Challenge: Suleiman the Magnificent and the Battle of the Philosphers

Settled 1W. I saw an interesting opportunity with the FP and whatnot so I went pottery first, then AH, then mining, then mysticism, then bronze. Popped writing from a hut!

We have gold and easy access to ivory. I'm bulbing math and settling cities to produce cat/axe/elephant ASAP.

Edirne was settled 3N of the capitol in 2430 BC, although I was a bit worried about english culture pressure on the corn tile...hopefully I get the monument 1st and she doesn't have religion there. Hunting soon for access to ivory .

In 2150 I have a village! Go early pottery! Given the bulb limitations and my plans I took a shot @ judaism and got it in 1860. I choose not to convert right away while bordering buddhist lizzy, but honestly it's a toss up whose religion spreads first! What I DON'T have to worry about now is culture pressure on that corn .

In 1730 Ankara is settled to grab copper and 5 flood plains. I don't mind whipping out of this city temporarily to get cats/elephants later - the commerce will be a huge boost. I'm getting 38 BPT at -4 gpt, for example. I started with a granary in this city and just let the religion auto-spread to it since I could just use the copper/floodplains in the 8 tile circle. Sweet.

1460 SB converts to judaism without me lifting a finger . I was planning on going for liz anyway. I have a library up in istanbul and am running scientists. Normally I'd love to put an academy in such a power capitol (45 BPT at the moment) but bulbing math and heading for construction is fine too I guess.

1410 My alphabet shot pays off. WHOA. More like hi backwards AIs. Nobody has writing yet. I trade a bunch of lesser worker techs to alex for IW.

1310 Peters asks for mysticism. Sure Peter.

1290 I get the GS and instantly bulb math.

1250 Bursa settled 2W of grassland cows. This gives me room for 7-8 cities peacefully, as if this were going to go peacefully!

1160 Peter converts to judaism. Wow.

970 I have contsruction. I've made a couple axes so now I just need some elephants and catapults.

540 I teched CoL through CURRENCY and found another religion? How is this game fair? I'm teching for bureaucracy now.

520 BC I dow liz with 6 elephants, 4 cats, 4 axes. I wonder how this ends





510 I capture york with 0 losses.

450 I have London

410 158 gold pillaged on capture of hastings. Note that rather than bothering with culture buildings I either have judaism spread there via missionary or in this case the city has it already. This doubles up the usefulness, as i can neglect a culture building and also get the OR bonus when whipping in new buildings.

290 Since that was MOST of liz's production basis I took a break but didn't end the war. Reinforcing military from 2 cities while building up infrastructure otherwise. I want to grab at least her gem city yet and hopefully this will entire her into giving up calendar, one of only two techs any AI has that I do not. Stupid gems cities in AI hands.

170 Nottingham and coventry are mine. Strangely enough, Liz is now willing to give LESS. By the way, obviously per the rules I attached my warlord.

120 as per RPC rules, I revolt into Bureaucracy immediately after getting CS.

90 Cantebury is captured with no losses. Liz still won't give me calendar. I decide I've had enough expansion for the moment and call it quits with liz, taking peace. She can vassal to someone or something stupid like that later before I kill her.

10 AD Segment ends! Pictures:









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I think I'm doing OK.

Floodplains and cottages.

I've been playing all of the speeds lately and marathon definitely feels the most forgiving from a tech standpoint (Just don't get surprised DoW'd or neglect barb D, units don't come easy).

Anyway, don't forget we have a gold floodplain start here. Sully's starting techs are agriculture and the wheel, so I was able to IMMEDIATELY research pottery, like the turn I founded the capitol. The first thing I did was cottage the floodplains as the cities grew.

The 2nd city I settled was production but the 3rd and 4th had a commerce angle, being more floodplain cities. I also got LUCKY, popping writing from a hut so I was able to chop the library out earlier. Normally you wouldn't want to bulb math, but elephants are basically praetorians - ridiculously powerful. So good that I didn't even care to wait for a janissary bulb. Having no other alternative really I'll still bulb for lib and probably take gunpowder just to get those units ready for AIs that get longbows (although elephants aren't truly gimped even against LB's).

Founding a religion that spread to some of the AIs and caused anger between them. Also winning the race to alpha allowed me to use the early tech advantage to kind of dictate who gained any techs via trade.

So the 99 BPT thing is somewhat a combination of luck and a bunch of immortal+ players guiding my early game in other threads recently and applying that knowledge here. Imagine if that capitol, already in bureaucracy, had an academy...too bad we can't ).

Not much early on after 10 AD. I consolidated, whipped some courthouses then later forges (stopped losing money at that slider %), and teched through machinery/feudalism while trying to get another scientist to bulb paper (i'll probably just bulb straight for lib while teching bottom path)

The AIs finished my job for me:



In 505 I DoW SB



515 I grab SB's iron city which should cut down on annoyances though I'll still see dogs and protective archers.

535 SB catches me in bad position and I'm about to lose the city I took, and my units marching are hurt. I make him give me 200 gold for peace.

545 Peter finished off liz

555 I attach a GG to an elephant, getting it to combat V march.

565 I give alex some gold and code of laws to declare on SB. I then turn around and sell the tech to peter and SB for around 700 gold.

570 I pop a GSpy on bad odds eh . I have to infiltrate right? I can see SB already (maybe because i'm the only one with courthouses and #1 in cities ) so I do that on alex.

580 I have guilds, and am going for gunpowder directly. SB doesn't have feudalism but the others do. Janissaries will remove that trouble.

595 With SB watching his western front, it's time for a...DOG PILE!!!! Dow.



600 Spiro is mine.

610 SB takes corinth . I take mound city on a hill the next turn. SB has 45 turns on machinery and doesn't have longbows. Basically, he's toast.

620 I HATE THE INTERFACE. I went to look if SB would capitulate and took peace by accident. Autosave reload . Gay.

635 The NA city of numidian is mine. SB is in bad shape. I opt to heal in numidian while another stack of mine gathers on SB's NE border. 2 front war coming up.



660 SB is willing to capitulate. I want the power of owning his cities though, so no. I grab snaketown in 670, then it gets a little tougher.

In 700 I finally run out of conquesting money because I bogged down. This cuts the slider to 30% and drops my spectacular 200 BPT to 108 . This is when wars actually damage people. I'm teching banking to help deal with it. Merc and the forbidden palace somewhere in SB's lands will go a long way to making this medieval empire tech-strong again.

725 Pov. point and cahokia fall the same turn. SB is up to 56 turns on machinery...going the wrong way SB!

770 AD SB is off the map - greece must have taken its city back.







775 AD Segment end.

Peter is friendly and stronger, so alex is next once I have janissaries and reinforce the border. I don't know if this is what mad intended, but this is pretty easy as a straight warmonger game, RPC rules or not.

You are complaining that your tech rate is 118 BPT when you have 8 recently captured cities that do nothing but cost maintenance, without giving much in return????

He's just complaining for the sake of complaining.