King of the World #7: Saladin

Round 0: Livin' in Arabia (4000 B.C.)
Round 1: Chariots of Fire (4000 B.C. - 2550 B.C.)
Round 2: Establishment of Empire (2550 B.C. - 1250 B.C.)
Round 3: Another Round With No Name (1250 B.C. - 260 B.C.)
Round 4: Where's Hattie? (260 B.C. - 175 A.D.)
Round 5: Condemned and Outcast (175 A.D. - 700 A.D.)
Round 6: Dogpile! (700 A.D. - 920 A.D.)
Round 7: Chasing Hattie (920 A.D. - 1050 A.D.)
Round 8: War on Two Fronts (1050 A.D. - 1305 A.D.)
Round 9: To Hell in a Handbasket (1305 A.D. - 1320 A.D.)
Round 10: The Tipping Point (1320 A.D. - 1435 A.D.)
Round 11: Cease Fire! (1435 A.D. - 1485 A.D.)
Round 12: The Great Betrayal (1485 A.D. - 1610 A.D.)
Round 13: The Last Speedbump (1610 A.D. - 1690 A.D.)
Round 14: Overwhelming Force, Part I (1690 A.D. - 1730 A.D.)
Round 15: Overwhelming Force, Part II (1730 A.D. - 1764 A.D.)
Round 16: Cleanup on Aisle 5! (1764 A.D. - 1818 A.D.)

The King of the World series strives to better understand the leaders and nations of Civ IV by putting them into the geopolitical context of the Earth 18 Civs map.

In this seventh game, we will be playing as Saladin of Arabia with a few... minor changes:



First, as you can see, we are moving up to Emperor. Some say this shift is long overdue. I'm a little more ambivalent about it, though I will admit that the last couple of games have been awfully easy.

Secondly, I have a victory condition firmly in mind from the outset. I plan on Domination without Capitulation. Too many of my warlike games have relied on making a quick strike and writing my target off as a vassal state. I want to do this right. Maybe I don't have enough time to do this. At the very least, I should have a time victory in hand if the clock strikes midnight.

Finally? A few changes to the map:



On the left, you can see that I've reduced the mountain in Panama to a jungle grassland hill, allowing Montezuma access to the lush rain forests of South America. In the middle, you can see a slim passage made for Huayna Capac to escape his own highland prison. And to the right, you can see that the Spanish starting group has been shifted to the east, hopefully giving Isabella a fighting chance. You'll also note that, while still denied Archery, AI nations seem to get a bonus second Warrior on Emperor. Strange.

So, Saladin. Spiritual and Protective, A Unique Unit which doesn't require horses (despite easy access to them), and a Unique Building whose only purpose seems to be fueling an early Priest Economy. This seems at odds with my desire to take over the world, given the shift in focus required to found and spread a religion. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

Oh! Let's take a close look at the Arabian Peninsula (a place which I have, honestly, never taken much notice of in earlier games):



Hm. Not much to look at, beyond the short term. Long term, though, I plan on owning more... fertile territory. My initial inclination is to found 1N, on the Incense, though, again, I'm fairly unfamiliar with this neck of the woods.

Since I've made some changes, here's the save:

That ones Saladin For some reason I had it in my mind it was the next civ to the east. Ho hm, still think you should have gone England

It will be interesting to see if your changes will make any difference. I suspect when you get there Monty will have eliminated 2 civs and have all the Americas . Not sure what difference it will make to Issy.

Now for the position. I have to say I have never even looked at this civ on the world map. Settling, 1N might work, I think you have enough food to work the plains hill. I think you have to consider the short term advantage of the extra hammer in your city centre, this could be the advantage you need.

The down side is no metals . I think your best option is to try rushing Hatty with a bunch of chariots, she has a food rich, hammer poor start. You might be able to get to her before she can whip some defenders. Can you start researching Animal Husbandry? You will need it for the sheep as well. Research AH, build 4 chariots and take Thebes.

We can discuss your next move afterwards

Long time lurker .... anyway, I just played a game as Sally (monarch level) ... not to give anything away, but getting a city set up in mesopotamia before Cyrus is crucial, though very difficult @ emperor, I imagine.

My plan was a "baghdad" city and an "ankara" city up in asia minor ...

Nice call on moving the city to the incense ... didnt think of it in my game

AndrewN said:

rushing Hatty with a bunch of chariots

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Yeah. Settle in place, Hunting/AH, Worker/Barracks/Chariot* at size 4. Pause for a Work Boat and growing to size 5 after the first wave of Chariots goes out.

The alternative is something like Warrior/Work Boat/Settler to settle near the Copper. But you'd have trouble blocking an Imperialistic leader and all it would really get you is Axemen and some production. The rewards from Egypt are much better.

Don't settle 1N. Whatever you do you need the faster start from the plains hill.

you need to establish a good food/production up in mesopotamia, so ur first settler should go there. and secondly you should rush hatty... so i like to settle where the goodie huts are (jerusalum and babylon) and take hatty. after that you have your run at either europe, asia, or africa. take ur pick

Settling 1N is a good idea. Try to get your second city in Mesopotamia, and rush Hatty. If Cyrus beats you to it, then I would go after him first while building your second city near the western goody hut.

i think we all agree that Neal needs to CR hatty. Cyrus will be your main problem. Once he boxes you in on the north your gonna need to think of yourself as Egyptians

Then just attack Cy in meso and get that fertile land. Then kill alex and crush...wait im getting ahead of myself.

You won't get a city in Mesopotamia before Cyrus- IMO you should chariot rush him and maybe take out Hatty if you're quick enough.

Just settle in place. 1N is an Incense, a high-commerce tile. The Sheep and Fish when worked together will allow for food to work the Horses and Incense, so you're fine.

Techpath: This one's a doozy. There are a lot of options:

Agriculture/Animal Husbandry/Fishing/Pottery is what I prefer, since it unlocks Animal Husbandry early. Try making an extra Warrior while Agriculture is being teched, and use this 'army' to take out Cyrus. Then a Worker should hook up Horses and Sheep.

Have you considered modding in archers as starting units for the AI? Rushing AIs with warriors as defenders is such a pushover which IMO defeats the purpose of playing at Emperor.

^ Good call. (It would just be editing the units (and techs?) in Worldbuilder.)

One could just hand the AIs the archery tech in WB and make sure the starting units are cleaned, also.

Either way a warrior rush on Hatty would make for a very easy game unless something is done about the no archers deal.

Heck, chariot rushing against warriors makes for an easy game.

Saladin's best bet is a fast chariot rush into Mesopotamia, Cyrus will almost always build a city up there before you do, or build one in an annoying location that gives bad overlap with anything you put up there. Hapsepsut has zero production so she's also an extremely easy target, best to leave her for later as a bunch of cottages/farms on floodplains don't help you build units. An ideal core consists of the old Ottoman Empire territory, go Mesopotamia > Persia > Anatolia/Greece > Egypt. After that you can move into Europe or head east into India. North into Russia is also possible but I don't recommend it. You've got most of Africa/Central Asia to expand somewhat peacefully into, though a lot of that territory is desert

For a domination victory with no vassals, the whole of the old world provides almost exactly enough land. That's without any of the islands, including Britan, there is a little more than 2/3rds of the land between Asia, continental Europe, and Africa.

Finally a saladin game... Really looking foreward to it

Fetch checking in. Post a screenie of the Arabian peninsula?

Edit- That's funny. didn't show up in the browser the first time I loaded the page. Nevermind.

@ Fetch

There is a WB screenshot of the Arabian peninsula at the bottom of post #1.

does settling on incense give you a commerce boost from the default 'city' tile of 2f1h1c? Does it do so once you have calander?

CreeDakota said:

does settling on incense give you a commerce boost from the default 'city' tile of 2f1h1c? Does it do so once you have calander?

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No and no respectively. If the incense was next to a river then it would.

The rule says you only get a bonus if the value of the native terrain with no improvements is greater then the defaults from the city centre. That's why settling on the plains hill will give you a 2f2h1c city centre. For this calculation to work you have to ignore the overlays that are removed when the city is formed, so settling on the Oasis will not give you a bonus either.

does settling on incense give you a commerce boost from the default 'city' tile of 2f1h1c? Does it do so once you have calander?

Click to expand...

No, you only get 2 in the city when settling on a resource on a river.