Emperor Cookbook II: Mehmed II

ChromiumL

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Jan 29, 2008
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The Emperor Cookbook is a concurrent succession game series to help readers learn how to play and win at Emperor level in Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword, v3.17

This is the 2nd game of the series. You can see the results of our 1st game here.

Some of you may be familiar with the previous Monarchist Cookbook games. We decided to raise the level of difficulty to Emperor. Because we are always playing from the best save, this difficulty should be approximately equal to Monarch level difficulty.

For more information or to discuss the format, please visit the Monarchist Cookbook Bullpen.

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Our second Emperor Cookbook game features Mehmed II. We will be playing at Emperor difficulty, Epic, with a medium and small map. Huts and events are disabled for this game, as they tend to make things more random.

Here is the info on our leader, his unique unit and building as well as our starting position and settings:

Spoiler :

Our Fearless Leader:

Civ4ScreenShot0008.jpg


UU:

Civ4ScreenShot0010-1.jpg


UB:

Civ4ScreenShot0009-1.jpg


Starting position:

Civ4ScreenShot0011-1.jpg


Settings :

Civ4ScreenShot0007.jpg




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Round one lasts from 4000 BC - 1500 BC.

Please play this Round and submit your Report into this thread by next Sunday (the 23rd) if possible.


IMPORTANT (changed): Please use spoilers if you want to discuss opening strategies prior to starting the round


At the end of your Round, please remember to name your save with your name, game and Round # & game date (i.e. "EC2 Round 1 MyName BC-1500.CivBeyondSwordSave"). (And please don't forget to attach it to your Round report, either! :lol:)

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Roster:

YOU! - contributor, voter - our most important fixture, the readers who follow the threads and play along.

Now that we have upped the difficulty level, we will return to the 'best ball' system of selecting and playing saves. What this essentially means is that after we have completed each round, everyone will have a chance to vote on which save is in the best position. The winning save will be used for the next round.

If there is any player who is strong at Emperor+ level, it would be great to have you post your saves to show us how it's done. However, I request that any of you who realize your round was far superior remove your save from the voting. This rule is intended to ensure that the game doesn't get into a overly strong winning position after only a few rounds (because what fun is that? ;)).

Voting Rules:

1. You may NOT vote on your own save (but you are encouraged to state the strengths and weaknesses of your save)
2. Only those who have posted a round may vote (those who are shadowing are always encouraged to express their opinion!)
3. Don't vote on a save that has voluntarily been removed from the running by the person who submitted it.
4. At the end of each round you can vote on 3 saves for first, second and third place. I believe that these votes should be made publicly in order to allow for as much discussion as possible. I strongly encourage you to explain why you are voting for a particular save. This is one of the best ways to learn, and that's what this game is all about! If you feel uncomfortable voting publicly, PM me with your vote.

After a couple days for voting and discussion a winner will be declared and we will move on to the next round.

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A special shout out goes to oyzar who provided us with the map!

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And with that, let the Game begin...

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Intrathread links (ToC): (note, the turn sets are subject to change, this is a tentative schedule to get this first round underway, we are still trying to find the best length for each round)

Round 0: The starting save (this post)
Round 1: 4000 BC - 1500 BC- Abegweit
Round 2: 1500 BC - 400 AD- Winston Hughes
Round 3: 400 AD - 1100 AD- Now Playing!
Round 4: 1100 AD - 1500 AD - upcoming
Round 5: 1500 AD - 1700 AD - upcoming
Round 6: 1700 AD - 1820 AD - upcoming
Round 7: 1820 AD - 2050 AD - upcoming
 

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IMO a top leader-civ combo. The UU and UB are each among their strongest, and mehmed himself has solid if unspectacular traits. Note: many don't realize because he doesn't declare @ pleased, but mehmed II is tied with Shaka/Ragnar/Napolean as an AI with the highest build unit probability in the entire game.

Checking in...
 
@TMIT: agreed with you, Mehmed is a bloody warmonger... I always try to kill him before he starts his vassalizing campain...

Better to be him!
 
Looking good, godspeed all of you. Adding the game to the Monarchist Cookbook Bullpen immidiately.

EDIT: Map provider? ChromiumL or R_Rolo1?
And is the EC I played through or merely close to ending?
 
@Diamondeye: Oyzar provided the map ;)
thanks to him and to Chronium for hosting the game...
 
I am going to try to play this one more actively. I just kind of lost interest in the last one when I blew a round badly, heh.
 
I'll give this one a shot. I've just recently moved up to Emperor and I'm still searching for my first victory, so, this should be a great help.

Good luck to all!
 
100 turns didn't seem like much, especially with this map. Tonight was my best night to get things under way, so, I'll be the one to go first....:confused:

Spoiler :

My struggle on Emperor thus far has been expansion. I’m a wonderhog player who likes to run SE/CE combo, but that doesn’t look like a good route based on this start. I usually play on marathon so, I’m not sure how many turns I’ll have before the end of the round, but, I hope to have a modest 3 cities nailed down with Moai going up/to be built in cap and heading for a colossus construction if I can find more coastal city sites. I think I always wait to long to build Nat’l Wonders. With 11 coast in cap BFC I figure it’s a no brainer for Moai. And we’re off…

4000 BC - Settle in place.

I start with Fishing with a rough plan of Fishing > Mining > BW.

Turn 6 – I’m moving warrior N. Find a solid city location. Corn and Ivory in initial square, hill pig and second ivory in BFC.

Turn 14 – Warrior finishes. Start on Work Boat. N is a dead end. I tend to space my cities a bit too far apart looking for ideal location as opposed to working every square. I see two locations max to the north. Send start warrior back to city, send new warrior off West.

Turn 15 – I meet Tokugawa…just great. One of my least favorite neighbors.
At this time I am working tree covered spices and clam in Istanbul. I am always unsure about whether I should be working the clams for the :commerce: or the 3 :food: on the cow. What do others do?

Turn 16 – Hinduism FIDL. Tundra to the SW – gives me an idea of where we are at.

Turn 18 – Buddhism FIDL.

Turn 24 – Marble S/SW. I love building TGL, maybe I’ll get sucked into that again.

Turn 30 – What a snaky map. Seems awfully flat. I’m getting worried about finding production cities. Come to think of it, its pretty short on ideal sites in general. Maybe this will help me since I look for perfect placement usually.

Turn 34 – First glimpse of Toku’s border. About 12 squares diagonally NW. First fish boat out, I start work on the second. Just hit 3 pop, working spices, tree hill, clams.

Turn 40 – Conversion to slavery complete. No visible Copper. I’m going with Hunting > Archery. Still trying to get a grasp of this map. From the looks of things, there’s a solid city location to potentially block out Toku (can’t tell for sure yet), but, I’ll need border pop to complete the block. Might end up going with mysticism after Archery if I can get the settler out.

Turn 47 – Istanbul hits 4 as I get my second work boat out. Just learned hunting. Archery is 8 turns. Starting on a Settler, 22 turns, should be 18 when I plop the boat down in one turn. Working 2xclam, tree grass hill, spices. I will switch to archer and whip archer out when I learn Archery and hopefully Settler will piggyback and finish one or two turns later. Warrior still exploring NW, other warrior at home in Istanbul.

Turn 51 – We are eighth largest civ.

Turn 55 – Archery discovered. Really debating about next tech. I don’t feel great about not having a worker out yet. Its just not been necessary. I’ll probably whip archer, finish settler, then go worker, archer in capital. Hopefully have second city up with worker, archer, monument if its needed to block. I go with Animal Husbandry to work the cow in cap BFC and the many pigs around, hopefully find some horses as well.

Turn 56 – Archer whipped and still eight turns away on the settler working 2xClam. Warrior reveals gold that will make for a nice city #2 block spot. It’ll have corn, clam, gold in BFC. 9 tiles from Istanbul.

Turn 67 – Judaism FIDL. Settler en route. Working on worker. Discover AH. No horses in sight – geeze. Going with pottery.

Turn 68 – Found Edirne. Start on worker.

Turn 71 – I find copper in the area to the south that I didn’t get to yet. Probably would have changed my research path and second city location, but, oh well. Now we have Toku blocked at least as a result of not finding it. Want to get to this bronze ASAP with City #3.

Turn 77 – Worker finally out. Start on Archer.

Turn 78 – Discover Potter. Start on Sailing.

Turn 91 – Stonehenge BIDL. Istanbul to 5 in 2 turns. Will complete Archer in 1 turn and whip Worker #2 when I hit 5.

Turn 93 – Meet Cyrus. Discover Sailing. Tough call on research. Toku is 2 turns from IW. I am going with Writing.

Turn 97 – I chop finish Worker/start Settler. I usually delay chopping, but, I am worried about getting to that bronze.

Turn 100 – This was a much shorter period than I expected. I don’t feel like I’ve done much of anything, and, on this strange map, its hard to see how people will really separate themselves in 100 turns. Anyway, when I finish that chop at Istanbul I will whip finish the Settler and use the spill over for a final archer. That should finish around the same time as Erdine’s archer. I will move one archer in Istanbul to Erdine, leaving 3 unpromoted archers in Erdine. An unpromoted archer and warrior in Istanbul, and, a warrior that is busting some fog in city #3. I plan to go Barracks in Istanbul after the archer. Settler in Erdine after the archer. Worker in City #3 upon founding.

Tech wise, we have:

Fishing, Wheel, Ag, Hunting, Mining, BW, Sailing, Pottery, AH, Archery. Currently researching Writing. Planning to go Alphabet > Metal Casting after that and trade for IW.


My little empire:

Civ4ECII1.jpg


My next group of cities:

Civ4ECII2.jpg


Civ4ECII3.jpg



I wrote a lot and didn’t accomplish too much. Welcome any constructive criticism on my start.


 

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ECB Mehmed II Rnd 1
Spoiler :



Turn 1, move warrior to NW, find coast, nothing else, settle in place, 2 clams, 1 grassland cow, 1 spices numerous forests to chop, river for levy.

settleinplace0000.jpg


1st build is a warrior, while teching fishing for 10 turns to gain work boats. Workers can wait.

Time warrior and fishing to finish together, send 2nd warrior out exploring to the NW, 1st warrior uncovers pigs and 2 ele's to the North. Build fishing boat, while teching pottery for Granaries, Need immediate growth.

Find Toku to the NW of us, above the Gold/clam tile, BEHIND a mountain, with 1 open tile for access...good blocking. Sliver of land to the NE, turns into a dead end with 2 ele's and a pig at end of.'

MidNorth0000.jpg


Finish work boat, then realize I can't whip a granary, tech mining/bronze working, 2nd work boat, as we'll need it for worker/settler.

3275 BC Consider declaring on Toku, just so I can beat up on his Scouts, but decide its not worth the trouble of blocking city being attacked constantly.


Finish mining, and work boat, stagnate city for 2nd work boat, not work both fishing grounds while building granary. Max food/gold for tech/growth. Toku's got 2 dye in capital BFC, can't be trusted with calendar. Can't be trusted period, map looks like a sprayed out fingers, with resources at each fingernail end. 1st warrior survives both a wolf and lion attack, more Ele's at end of another finger.

Complete granary, actually built full on, no fishing, 11 for bronze working, 13 for worker, build 1 worker to 1 from completion, whip and gain work boat immediately, Granary to allow regrowth and build barracks in meanwhile.

Seems we are on the small with Toku, Looking to kill him with some axes and rex over lands, marble to south with tundra, 3 ele's, 1 fish, 1 corn, 2 dye (toku), and 1 spice found.

Found Shaka, or his work boat 1st, directly north of Toku, may not have to kill him now.

Find stone to the North of us, looks like we'll have both stone and marble available to use. Need an exploring work boat as well.

Northlands0000.jpg


Sight some bluish cultural borders, can't tell who, to our NNE at extreme end of finger, seems a separate land mass.

2625 BC find bronze directly North of us on eastern finger, at extreme end, and in South in Tundra. Woodsman warrior faces off to lion in open ground. Bronze working in, revolt to slavery 1 turn and whip out worker, 2 turns.

Warrior to north, loses to lion, resting upon copper, fitting grave site, whip worker, overflow applied to exploring work boat (1 turn).

SouthandWest0000.jpg


Finish land exploration, WE'RE TRAPPED I TELL YOU...TRAPPED. The only way out is through Toku and Shaka, but lots of land to settle into. To west is desert, north is 2 fingers and grasslands, east is ocean with some sailable lands, and south is Tundra ice and fur/marble.

2225, Judaism is founded and I meet Cyrus, who's our blue boy off on own land mass. Settler absorbing all chops, and now building lighthouse, going for Great Light House.

Cyrus has Animal Husbandry and sheep pasture set up, time lighthouse to match Masonry, looking to chop out settler, and build GLH.

1700 whip out last of settler, along with warrior escort, send off to found blocking city under toku by gold clam and corn in bfc, other cities sites are corn 2 ele's to NW finger, or SE with corn spices Bronze won't have food along with marble along river for levy. Blocking city No 1, been rather slow I feel, lets hope AI is just as slow.

As of 1500 BC, I have blocking city out, warrior sent to fog bust 3rd city site, Stonehenge has just been built, walls going up in blocking city, main city to build settlers/workers for others, along with GLH (23 turns) Teching towards writing have;

Techs0000.jpg


Summary;

2 cities, blocking city on Toku set up by gold/corn/clam, building walls/library.
2 mines in capital, 1 cow pastured, road to cow, but not back to mine.
1 warrior fog busting 3rd city site/route.
2nd settler in production, while reducing whipping anger.
Lighthouse and granary in capital, GLH 23 turns from completion.
7 turns on writing.
Warriors only army, work boat exploring to the north, (he he, shaka will be cold in his loin cloth)

Capital0000.jpg


Tech's needed, writing (7 turns)
Workers needed, (of course)
Tech archery or settle bronze city No 3? for axes, Marble for Oracle slingshot open??
GLH for income/ GPP's and feeling good.

View attachment 194838 Hit pause button again to unpause :confused:

 
Spoiler :
Interesting start - 2 clam, spice and cows. Expansive and organised. I decide to research fishing and build a warrior. 3800 BC meet Tok who appears to be north and west of us. After fishing I go for mining and BW. 3625 BC, I find Tok's territory where I thought it was. Switch to slavery in 2975 BC, but I can't see any copper. 2550 BC, discover AH, but no horses. 1600 BC, I meet Shaka who has come from near Tok. Shaka wants open borders, but I decline until I have secured all the land I want. I discover Archery on final turn; I choose IW next, but available to change.

I'm reasonably happy with this turnset. I still have plenty of room for expansion. For me, the main issue is increasing my defence for an attack by Tok.

RJM

PS How do I unpause Ipex's save?
 

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Hi guys,

@IPEX & Kraftster: don't forget the save ;)
 
Spoiler :
i have few words about shape of land: If i get all these snaky continents I exit to desktop and leave Civilization for a while.

I also usaully create mess with heavily coastal starts since i go into theorires about workboats and growth. To start I built warrior first. Than a wb, then another:lol: At time i started first worker cap was size 4:rolleyes: (leaving alone road system and sailing interaction)

I won't say how much worker turns i manged to waste. Probably not enough coffein. Horrible horrible playstyle. (i also kept switching build orders which are defintely stupid)

I think i made barracks for one reason. It is hard to whip for two as Mehemed. Worker/Granary/lighthouse everything has discounts.

I also have few words about my fogbusting - I suck at it. So pig, wheat and 2xjumbos now is a barb city. (Something for axes to do.)

Bright side we have gold mine online (although i would like to be explained why on Earth gold counts as unconnected to my empire). We are set to chop out great lighthouse. Lighthouses are being made, masonry unlocked. I think it is easiest to chop out in our gold city.

My third city... It will be okay when it gets border pop. Do not see how i could get copper in a better way. Although do not ask me why worker is downwhere roading marble.

to ipex
Spoiler :
Trapped? we have enough space + some chance settle something via galleys.


to RJM:
Press Pause again?
 

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Thoughts on the start:
Spoiler :
Mehmet has the wheel and agri as starting tech...
So the first choice is wheter to go to AH first (the tile where the warrior is standing strangely lacks forest... ;) ) or fishing first.
I think I will go fishing followed by BW to enable chops and whips (good with two clams).
Worker first with a switch to a workboat.

The shape of the land and neighbours will determine the rest of the strategy... Great Lighthouse, axe rush... In any case Pottery and COL are important for the cheap buildings (but when this isn't the case?)...

Cheers,

Raskolnikov
 
Spoiler :
Fishing, Mining, BW, Sailing, AH, Myst, Masonry, Hunting (3 turns to Archery).

Settled in place. Having neither Fishing nor Mining meant a slow opening, and this will never be a monster capital, but it's not a bad start by any means.

I built a worker until Fishing, then switched to a Work Boat. Once that was done, I built another WB until the city reached size 3 and BW came in, and then whipped it. With the overflow, the Worker only took another four turns to finish, after which I set it to mining the hills. I then built a couple of Warriors and a Lighthouse, occasionally dumping chops into a Settler (which was completed with the whip).

Thanks to my initial warrior being eaten by a lion, I only discovered the corn/clam/gold spot just in time to avoid settling my second city elsewhere. With Toku blocked, and with an easily defensible choke-point between us, I felt no great need to go chasing after IW, even though neither Copper nor Horses had showed up. Archers will do for now.

Once another Settler had been sent to claim the corn/pigs/eles on the NE peninsula, I started work on the Great Lighthouse (a no-brainer on this map, I think). With chopping, it should be done in about 15 turns.
 

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