NC XIV: Saladin of Arabia

We got a good look in that there is a TON of room to expand if one goes fast REX. A rush is not out of the question either, leaving the optimal strategy up to player preference. I recommend taking the land to the south one way or another however, as much of it is extremely good. Don't forget to settle power commerce resources like gold.

grabbed bronze to the east ASAP. turned out to be a good move. i have killed over 12 barb warriors and 6 axes so far. it is literally an invasion - there is too much land to fogbust.

eventually i have gotten out enough settlers to found 4 cities. this is my city plan (built cities are spots, ? cities are to be built.



looking good so far. tech is struggling, but it will improve.

oh and a i got the pyramids

We all know what the start looks like so I didn't bother with a pic. The goodie hut beside yielded Hunting. Free tech, what's not to like. Research was Agri=>mining=>Bronze working=>masonry=>archery=>pottery=>writing. Then down the religious line to CoL. Initial build order was Worker, warrior, warrior, scout, settler. The settler went for medina, taking corn, copper, and gold. I built a little more military after a barracks, and a worker and settler. The settler went south toward Sully (who found me BTW, and I found Huyana down further south), and settled the sheep and corn site with lots of mountains. Not an ideal placement, but I cannot let Sully get too close to me. I had open borders with HC, and he spread his religion to me, which I adopted, since I don't want to be the odd one out, not yet anyway. Along the way I got the great wall (9 turns, I'll take that), and after building my settler for the wheat/horse/floodplain site I decided to try for the Oracle, which netted me metal casting. The pyramids were also built in medina.

At 455 BC my empire looks like this:


Mecca:


Graphs:


Cities:


I am lagging a little behind n the power stakes, but I will now pump out axes, and settlers, and a worker here and there. With MC I am not too worried about falling behind in tech, as it is excellent trading material, which can be used for backfill, as is aesthetics, which I will go for after maths. Now I need land. Hopefully I can balance the ReX v. the military, and not leave myself exposed. Sully needs to be erased at some stage, I'm thinking maces and cats/trebs.

Well at this point Hunac and Sulli been voted off the island so I have it to myself. This is pretty much opposite last game hehe. Last game was peaceful very very early and no cottages. This game was war war war early and I am building TONS of cottages with all those floodplains.

I dont know who are other leaders yet but I managed to get AP built so at least I dont have to worry bout that. Right now it just expand as fast as I can without killing economy.

One thing that IS annoying I have had 5 gp's so far this game ALL of em $%&*%*&^(*^(* great spies GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. And I been wonder whoring too I built SH first so whole game the MOST chance a GSpy has had was first one at 33% every one since been under 20 and last two under 12% and they STILL keep coming. I BETTER not find out TMiT set iit so only g8 spies pop

I don't even think setting it to only Gspies is possible without a mod! There are no shenanigans on this map, not even a mis-named AI or a leader off in the middle of a 4x4 island trio with nothing but grassland . I'm around 1600 AD myself, so of course I just got muskets . Nothing but peaceful expansion, but LOTS of it (Quick kind of forces it). I'll have an update tomorrow.

I got lucky - the starting location of my warrior revealed the nearby gold, so I shifted one square toward it and settled there.



Since I was going for a religion, I decided to build a warrior first, rather than a worker (as the worker wouldn't have anything to do due to lack of appropriate techs).

Buddhism went on turn 11. Would I get Hinduism?



Yes, yes I would.

Meanwhile, my warrior went exploring, turning up some gold, and ...



"Noice."

This helped me to get #2 position on the Advancement chart ...



As you can see, I haven't met anyone yet. I've been looking, honest ... I guess they all explored away from me.

Since I had stone, I decided to arrange some of the large blocks into a circle. It seemed like a good idea at the time.



Finally, I met my neighbors: a cautious, religion-less Mehmed, and a grumpy Incan who worshiped false idols. I still didn't know where either of them was ... I'd brought my warrior back for garrison duties, and the scout I built to replace him ... got killed by a barbarian. D'oh!

Having found both Copper and Horses nearby, I decided to settle somewhere I could grab these useful resources. Here's my empire as at 1000BC.



My power rating compared to Mehmed is a bit of a worry. I plan to start correcting that as soon as the Pyramids are built (whether by me or IAFL )

suleiman declares, i resign.

Settled in place and popped a scout on my first hut, so I was in business. Grabbed 4 or 5 more huts, got Ag, some gold, and a warrior.

Stone + SPI leader with such a cool UB = Mids for me, without question. However, as I explored the landscape, the floodplains SCREAMED for a killer CE. Hmmm. OK, I decided, I would go with a hybrid, looking to cottage as many floods as possible, while still running specialists where possible. There was a lot of food, so I figured I could try it this way. I also decided that I wanted to use cities to cut off the Southern AIs, Suile and HC, and settle the North at my whim, probably with some free XP and no-settlers to boot (in other words, let the Barb build cities for me.

So with the Stone, I went for the GW to start, then the Mids. No problems with either, I used whip overflow to crank out a few settlers while I was at it, as well as a pile of workers. Those floods are great for pumping out settlers and workers in your side-cities, leaving the Cap to concentrate on Wonders and infra buildings. I grabbed 2 quick cities on the edge of the Floods, one with 10 floods and 4 silk!

I also made a flyer city, deep in the jungle, on the 2-spice + rice tile along that killer river. I figured I would be surrounded on both sides, but wasnt worried about a culture war with either of those AIs. I knew I wouldnt be going to war anytime early this game, plenty of land to settle, and we all ended up Hindu (HC). I founded Confu in one of my flood cities, so I am hoping to turn that into my Wall Street city.

So its 1000 AD, I have a bunch of strong cities, decent military, ahead in the Lib race, etc. I built the GW, GL (I always go for the GL when I build the Mids), HGs, and used an Engineer on the AW. I settled a Spy and an Engineer as well, still waiting for a GS, heh. Heres a few screenies of my empire. My plans are just to keep pushing up Lib, hopefully grabbing Steel, then mixing Maces, Camels and Cannons to take out my continent's AIs. I am not in the tech lead though, Suile has that, HC got cut off hard, too, so he is a non-factor, but he build the Hindu shrine. I will report again after I meed the other continents.

The funky part is this hybrid. It really doesnt quite work as well as more "classic" versions of each. I should have farmed a bunch of the Floods, and ran Caste for all kinds of specialists, using SPI to swap into Slavery for production as needed. I am not worried about the future of the game, having 30+ Towns on FPs with US and FS and Levees will be pretty sweet. Maybe add in Cereal and Mining, with plenty of good spots still available for the "2nd REX" phase in the North.

It stuck Suile with us, green on green, and Suile (and Zara) are always a PAIN to see their borders, especially in jungle areas. Then, it stuck Willy and Hanny together, and its CRAZY confusing. Seems Hannibal and Willy traded a couple cities, so now they are all jumbled together in little chunks of each.

I wish there was a way to customize the color scheme of each AI in the game. I know you can edit the WB file, but I would rather a way to change each AIs display color in the Options menus.

There, I feel better, just needed to vent that little pet-peeve of mine!

Agreed!

When I intially saw the minimap of the other continent (after trading for Hannibal's world map), my reaction was "Yikes! Carthage is HUGE!". Then I started to look at the orange cities in the main window and realized half of them were Dutch. That was a relief

grrrr $^%&^(* financial Leaders. I dont know how it happened. it seemed like most of th egame when it would give ranking I would be number one in most advanced. Then all of a sudden bam I am DEAD last.

I wasnt even close to lib race. By time the other AI's came round Asoka, WIllie and Liz alrdy in free religion. By time I got there maps willie is HUGE. he owns like 70% of his contient. Asoka like 15 Hani like 12 with liz just getting the scraps.

It took some doing but I FINALLY managed to get economy going so I could start keeping up in tech. First with lib race done and over I went for divine right. Not for the religion but so I could have chance at Spiral and Versaille. Once those were built I was able to broker DR to catch back up a lil. I even manged to rade it to willie for a tech, gold and his world map which actually let me win map race since with willies map one of my caravls sitting by coast to rptoect seafood from pirates just had to move like 3 squares to finish the circumsizing the globe race.

After I got DR I went for constituiton so I could get rep. Then Democracy so I could get SoL. between that and getting grocers and banks all going things started to pick up a little. Since I had tons of cottages/towns going I also tech printing press to give them a boost.

By time it was over the only thing they had that I didnt was commie and I actually had a cple techs like Assembly line and Chemistry and Mil Sci that they didnt have. I am pretty much ahead of most of them now but just barely ahead of willy but hopefully I can pull more ahead.

Powerwise I am number two behind willie but hopefully I can pass him soon. Hanni was a pain at first since RIGHT on meeting him I was his worst enemy and he DoW'ed me and took a city which I took back but it set that city back like 50-60 truns now since it have to rebuild so much stuff.

After that he just sent in like a cpl gallion full of cats and trebs to be killed ( he apparantly hasnt read bout how all seige unit stacks havent been viable since Warlords) till he finally agreed to peace. And now for some reason willie is his worst enemy now so hopefully next time he feeling froggy he will leap at willie and not at me.

So right now I am ahead but only after SCRAMBLING to get there and just barely but now it looks like I can pull away and should be first in modern era waaay before ne1 else and can send stuff like bats and destroyers and artillery and marines and bombers to go for win.

I THINK why i got so behind was just my cottage economy just couldnt compete with those finanical leaders. That and just bad luck with great ppl. SEVEN of my first ten gp were great spies grrrr. I KNOW TmiT SAYS he didnt do anything so I guess I should take his word for it but if rolo or somebody could check the code in scenario JUST to make sure there isnt something like "give kaytie great spies out the wazoo" it would be appreciated hehe

Althought it was kinda annoying all those great spies meant no bulbing no shrines no academies no nothing grr. Any of which would have been nice. But I guess mainly it my fault. When I see floodplians 99.9% of time I cottage them And this map had TONS of floodplains. Instead I should have farmed them and used madrassas to get great scientists and great priests going.

Oh wells hopefully i can still pull out win. Even with sucky playing I think I SHOULD be able to get SOME kind of win a continent size empire. I just gotta keep lead going and hope iot snowballs as newer cities get going and maybe if SOMETHING other than a Gspy spawns I can get a corp or something to help then build a big enough stack to take out willie.

Anyways thats the plan so wish me luck

My tilt for the Pyramids was successful. I adopted Representation and Caste System as soon as I was able to do so.



And a few hundred years later my capital popped a prophet, allowing me to found a shrine.



And another five hundred years later, I built some fancy gardens:



However, all this fancy building left my power levels looking pretty weak. Fortunately, Suleiman had adopted Hinduism, which meant that we had good relations ... and then Huayna persuaded him to adopt Buddhism.

Uh oh.

I immediately made a trade: ~1100 beakers of techs, in exchange for 750 beakers' worth from Suleiman, and his conversion back to hinduism.

Still, it was clearly time to start building up a military force, and around 500 AD I was starting to do just that. Here's an overview of my empire at the time: first west, then east.



Importantly, once Feudalism finished (it has 7 turns to go, above) I adopted Police State and Vassalage, and started to crank out units - particularly from Medina, which is my best production city.

By 1000 AD, my power level is starting to climb: I'm up to 0.6 on Suleiman, who by now is back to being Buddhist, and will make 0.7 fairly soon hereafter, as I've headed straight for Guilds. Camel Archers are coming online, together with several catapults. I have them all massing in my southwestern city of Kufah.

And not a moment too soon, as Suleiman declares war!

... and throws a handful of horse archers and swordsmen at the fortified longbows and waiting Camel Archers in that city. My stack there isn't huge: three bows, four catapults, and five Camels, but it's more than enough to stymie his attack. In fact, after killing off a second, desultory attack in the west with my reserves, I find that Suleiman's effort in this war so weak, that I am able to switch my capital to building the Great Library.





A few turns later, Ankara falls to my stack. Before it is even out of disorder, Suleiman is over his fit of pique and ready to talk peace: I take 300-some gold and 10 gold a turn.



Camel Archers were the key to victory in this war: Suleiman's strongest units were strength 6 - horse archers, longbows and swordsmen. I had Strength 10 units, and they were coming off the production line with 2 promotions.

Post-war, my power rating is 0.7 of Suleiman's. I promptly use the gold he just paid me to bribe him back into Hinduism, and he happily opens borders once more.

I bet things don't stay this peaceful for long, however .... Huayna's already coaxed Suleiman into worshiping false idols twice before. It's likely to happen again. I've switched back to representation and adopted bureaucracy, now, in order to prioritize the Great Library. After that, troops will need to be built once more.

Ugh so close yet so far.

After point in last report I kept building up my empire doing my best to push ahead the other AI's. mainly Willie.

While I am busy with that Hanny Attacks the only civ small enuff for him to pick on--Liz.

I join in namely cuz Liz has settled the two islands south of my continent which is a little too close for me. PLUS those Islands seem to have the ONLY crab resource on whole fricking map. Luckily the islands are close enuff they are in paratrooper range so I drop some to start off while I build a cpl transports to finish off the rest.

That goes pretty easy. I take the islands then vassalize Liz. She just has 2 cities left on main AI continent but with flight that means I dont have to mess with transports. After I tech industrialism I start building and airlifting tanks and bombers over so I can go take on Hanny.

Once I get a decent stack going I DoW on Hanny. I take one city in opening turn and decide to raise it. It was an old citty of Liz and I didnt want to bother with a huge garrisson in it just to keep it out of revolting plus taking next closest cities would still let me control most of the tiles that city would have.

So next turn I capure the next closest city. I keep airlifting units expecting a looooong dragout fight. I mean after all this is Hannibal the warmonger the guy who crosses alps to fight rome on a elephant mr fight to bitter end and never say die.



Umm..ok guess not.

So with Hanny being a weenie and folding like origami after just 2 cities I see set my sights on Asok. Asok has a pretty decent size empire going so I figure if I can vassalize him I should get a dom win.

Asok is a lil bigger and lots more tech advanced than Hanny so I get a bigger stack together figuring he would put up a tougher fight. But after taking one city.



At least Hanny can console himself with knowledge that he not the BIGGEST weinie in game since he lasted for two cities TWICE as long as Asok hehe.

So with Asok all vassalized I check to see if I am close enough for a dom win.



No such Luck. Hitting next turn raises % a lil but still not enuff so it looks like I am gonna have to go after willie.

But taht will be for next round. Willie is huge and tech advanced and bigger than Hanny, Asok, and Liz combined so I am not gonna expect a one city captured and done with him.

Also I might not have to. Willie built UN and I got voted Sec Gen. Votes needed for Diplo win is like 630 and I have 550 votes all by myself so if that vote comes up soon and if my vassals vote the party line I SHOULD get a diplo win. Just not sure exactly when or if it will come up.

SO by next round depending which comes first I should get either a dom win or conquest or diplo win hopefully.

Here is how world looks at this point.

My empire:

North



and south



My top cities:

My cap:



This is how sucky I am doing this game. Last game my best money city was like 1400 plus gold per turn by this stage of game. Not this time. (I dont EVEN wanna discuss those settled great spires grrrr )

My Science City:



Not a TOTALLY sucky beaker city but still not all THAT special either.

My hammer city



Again not sucky but not all that gr8 either.

The demographics:



#$%%*(* financial ldrs. Willie is still holding his economy wise and his stupid dykes not letting me get as big a hammer lead as last game but I am pulling away bit by bit. Just not doing anywhere near as good as I did last game.

So anyways that my game at this point. Hopefully by end of next round I will get some kind of victory. WIsh me luck