Noble's Club XVI - Shaka

TheMeInTeam

If A implies B...
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Jan 26, 2008
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Hello everybody, it's time to present the 16th installment of the Noble's Club series!



We all know him. Some probably hate him. Tied with 3 other AIs for the most probability to train units, Shaka is a devastating warmonger that declares at pleased. The Impi is a utility troop and is a little difficult to use against targets with metal, but if an opponent lacks it has all the devastating power of traditional mounted troop charges. The UB is among the top in the game, early maintenance reduction in a barracks that coupled with the courthouse is nearly as strong a total effect as Holy Rome's.

And the start:

Spoiler :



No "Minor Civs" in this game, although they may make future appearances. This map has extra AIs with a low sea level (note, you can check this on turn 1 so I'm not spoiling anything ;)) to really emphasize the warmongering.

And here is the standard cut and paste of our Club Doctrine, courtesy of when Bleys was hosting the series:

There are no hard and fast rules here, fun and learning are our primary goals, but we do request that you update your progress at various points in the game, using the Spoiler feature of the boards.

Tentative posting updates are suggested at:

4000 BC (starting thoughts, no spoiler required for that discussion)
1000 BC or so (how you decided to progress up the early tech/build paths, which AIs you have met, etc)
500 AD or so (after establishing some cities and a possible plan of action)
1200 AD or so (mid-game, Lib race, wars or peace, or whichever happened or didnt, met other continent if applicable, etc)
1600 AD (or when you have decided on a course of action and a specific victory condition)
End of game (Victory!!! or defeat, no shame in losing, especially if you tried a higher level. Learning is what we focus on, not fastest win or biggest empire)

Remember, these are only guidelines. What we really want are your thoughts as the game goes on, so if your strats don't fall into line with those dates, feel free to adjust your reports accordingly.

We also welcome players to ask for specific game advice, as we have a number or stronger players who lurk and help out with solid tips, and of course, we help each other. Replies to specific questions should also be in spoilers, with a simple "@" in front of the person the answer is directed towards.

Special Thanks go to Bleys, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps for most of the series (and the one I learned from!), and all of you for playing.

The WB-save is attached (zipped, they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, I suggest checking out the BUG or HoF Mods), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC XVI". This allows you to play with your favorite Mod at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Prince, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Also, it should be noted that although this is a "pre-Monarch" oriented series, you are welcome to play it at levels above Prince. However, the AIs will NOT get their full set of bonus techs (unless your host gets too creative). The main difference is Archery, which the AI normally gets for free at Monarch and above. The main effects of this are in the AIs starting units (warriors instead of archers) and it also creates a tad "slower" AI, since they now have to tech archery themselves.

In addition, because of the variations of using the Scenario menu, your starting Scout/Warrior may not be in exactly the same spot as the one shown.

Starting zip file:

View attachment 195154

TMIT Map tip:

Spoiler :
There's more land nearby than you might think. Explore carefully.
 
Welcome to the Forums L-Plate Ruler. :beer:
 
Signing up for Emperor, Epic. Shaka is a fun leader.
 
Hello.

First time poster/player of these boards. Longer time lurker. :lol:

I'll sign in with Noble/Epic. I've never won a single game. :crazyeye:

That's mostly because I tend to restart a lot. :rolleyes:

Well, maybe doing this series will help me to finish one, lol. One question though, how do i do screenshots, and where would i find the files?

thanks
dew
 
Keep in mind that if you name the file you can't have any information which you get from hovering over something in the game...I think....

That's a little iffy. You can...SOMETIMES (all of my ss's are shift printscreens, some clearly show hovering displays). It seems erratic, as if sometimes it works (best way is to hover over, do it, and then make sure the mouse cursor is hovering over when you hit enter. That seems to work about...3/4 of the time?).

But a lot of SS's don't require hovering, and naming really helps you figure out what's what.
 
Hi

Noble,Marathon, 765 AD.


Spoiler :
Settled in place, AH teched fiurst while building worker, then Mining and BW.

Scout went exploring. First two huts were maps :(. Next hut was gold then a warrior, and another map :(.

We meet the AI's on our island, Salad, Stalin and of COURSE Hammy. I just KNEW either Hammy or SB were gonna be nearby just so all out Impy dance across the map couldnt happen.

Hammy has an annoying UU, Salad is protective and very far away so the winner of "Who wants to be a Dead Civ" is Joseph Stalin. After we locate copper and set a city there then tech wheel to hook it up we build a stack of axes and Impis and go say hi. By time we get to him he just has two cities so we keep moscow and raise the junk one.

We tech fishing, sailing next cuz I just KNOW I am gonna want glh to keep economy from going kaput. After sailing teched we tech IW to get swords to go deal with Hammy. By time we get group of swords going to add to axes and impis already made we DoW on Hammy JUST in time. He has IW BUT he hasnt hooked up his iron. His workers are in middle of building a mine but he runs home when stack gets close.

So he has no metals but does have chariots and those !@#$%^ bowmen and has walls. But I knew it was gonna be like that and brought a ton of swords figuring to lose one for every bowman killed. First city I take has his horses so after that taken he down to just spamming bowman.

I get to his cap and get set for bloody battle. First sword just 29% odds and dies. Second sword 29% odds and wins. So I am like yay thats always nice. Third sword 29% odds he wins too. Fourth sword facing a bowman that hasnt been fortified as much so his odds 43% and he wins, 5th sword 43% odds and he wins. FOUR sub 50% odd wins in a row :). That makes up for tank losing a 96% odds in the last LHC game.

Next two swords die. After that it just clean up and RNG gosd to show he can still take away I lose a sword who had like 90 something odds against a very weak bowman. But Babylon falls and I have 4 lucky swords out of it hehe.

By this point GLH has been chopped and Ikandas spammed BUT economy STILL tanking. I only keep 3 of hammys cities but slider still has to be kept at zero for LOOOOONG time. Meanwhile that dillhole Salad starts spamming cities in all the gaps left by hammys razed cities grrrrrrrr.

I tech pottery to get cottages going. I know either alphabet or math will open up currency so I tech alphabet since everybody say that is nice for tech trading. I get alphabet but ALL I can get for it is polyand priesthood but I take it so I can make long slow trek to CoL

On way to CoL the GLH spawns GM and he bulbs currency and I trade that to salad for monarchy. Since he wont give up math for anything. Stupid AI's NONE of them will give up math, Salad and Giggles refuse to trade it and BK so backwards I actually have more techs than him somehow. Giggles is really annoying HG has been built looooong time ago so NO reason for him to hang on to math and I have alphabet, code of laws AND currency to trade but he STILL wont budge.

But FINALLY CoL get done. I have to tech math on my own. Then I tech HBR so I can have stable built by time I am done with construction and start making Ellies to go visit Salad.

Construction gets done and I start building cats and ellies while I tech MC and then Machinery.

When I get a decent size stack together I make my move. ANd as they move in SHEEESH the lil snot has LONGBOWS grrrrr. But luckily Mecca is target I hit right off the bat so only one LB there by time my stack gets to it and after cats lower defenses it not that big a problem. I take Mecca and Medina, and raise one junk city that was REALLY crowding Mecca that not only gives mecca some breathing room but alos takes out Salads horses so he cant make anymore HA's not that a stack of Ellies and Impi's is all THAT scared of HA's.

And that pretty much where I left off. In middle of war with Salad. Machinery all teched and trying to get to CS asap so I can turn my swords into maces.

Here is how map looks.

My Empire:



These are all my core cities.

Rest of island:



You can say the old baylonina cities I kept as well as all the junk cities salad spammed in the gaps.

Closer look at salad's empire:



Mecca is mine now and it has a shrine for hinduism so its nice to have. It also has ToA. I probably should have razed medina though. It over laps two other cities and you KNOW that mountain gonna be causing volcano event all game grrrr. I HATE when I do DUMB things like that.

One reason why salds LB's arent causing as much probs as they could is thanks to wars with Stalin and Hammy my lucky swords who lived through those low odds battles NOW look like this:



Combat 1,2, CR 1-3, and cover. I have two swords like that and as long as cats take out the city defenses they just say longbows shmongbows hehe. and as soon as CS is done and the get upgraded they will REALLY be scary city busters.



All this warring means whole game I only built ONE wonder :(. Waaaaah EVERYBODY is getting all the shinies except me :(.

Demos:



I SEEM to be ahead but it doesnt feel like it. My economy is sucky and I dont have any shinys. Plus being number one in trade routes is actually kinda bad. When your number is negative it means your cities are all bigger than theirs, when it positve it mean theirs are bigger than yours :/.

Tech sitch:



I am waaay behind salad but SEEM to be ahead of giggles and BK. Not 100% sure though since my EP against them is waaay low so I am not sure if they have anything new if it would show up or not on this screen. I switched ep focus to put EVERYTHING on Salad since I am at war with him but even doing THAT I am like 1000 and something ep points to his 2000 ep. He is very paranoid about me for some reason. So all focusing on salad really accomplished was let BK and giggles get ahead of me in ep too.

But if it is accurate then not much trading will be going on for awhile. And not sure how helpful neighbors will be since I noticed this:



Not 100% sure but that DOES look like the color of that lil twrp Pacal. Grrrrr I HATE Pacal but BK and Giggles should be happy he there since if I can that lil %^&*^*&( just mved to top of list just cuz he annoys me in past games hehe.

Well thats it so far. Really all I am doing is trying to get my island to myself and then try to settle it. NOOOO idea really how I am doing since there are TONS of other AI's I havent seen yet and since they ALL getting the shinys they probably waaaaaaaaay ahead of me :(.

Kaytie
 
Can i play this with the unofficial patch for 3.17 ?
If I can i will give it a try on Prince/Epic
If i fail theirs Noble still their :p
 
Prince, epic, to 10 AD:

Spoiler :

Quite an uneventful round. No need for an early war, as there is a lot of land to settle.

Tech path: mining - wheel (hut) - BW - AH - Mysticism - masonry - pottery - fishing - sailing - writing - IW - alphabet - archery - mathematics - polytheism and meditation from Saladin - construction

Settled in place. BW reveals copper in the BFC and 2 more sources very close, SE and NW.
Stone is close, too, and Jumbos. I founded the second city to claim stone, pigs and incense.
Third city to claim wheat,copper and dye.
Fourth city south again, for clam, jumbos and more copper.
Fifth city in the jungle, to claim banana, dye and iron.
Horses are in a bad spot to the north but I don't care, as we have jumbos.

I've had some terrible luck with animals and barbs, losing a scout and two warriors very early.

Main events:

3575 - Hammurabi
2925 - Saladin
2800 - Stalin
2025 - Completed Stonehenge in Ulundi
1750 - Charlemagne
800 - Pyramids completed
525 - Great Wall missed by 8 turns

The empire:





Our part of the world:



Techs:



Diplo:



I'm going to settle two more cities. To the west at the rice/pig spot, just to block that region and run some scientists. Going to close borders to Stalin, probably.
And another on the southern tip of the peninsula, at the iron/incense spot. Going to build Moai Statues there, I think.

Then a jumbo/catas war vs Hammurabi looks very doable. He's buddhist and already asked for some stupid tributes. Nobamba is going to be a decent production city.

Oh, and I've got the +2:health: event at the very beginning, making for an excellent health cap.

 
Second round.
Prince, epic, to 1140 AD:

Spoiler :

Started some war this round.
Tech path: construction - HBR - priesthood and monotheism from Saladin - currency - monarchy (Saladin) - feudalism (Saladin) - CoL - metal casting - calendar (Hammurabi) - machinery

Main events:

75 - miss the Great Lighthouse by 3 turns and get 234 gold.

265 - Charles found a city in the pig/rice spot. Razed immediately and peace again.

295 - Stalin spontaneously vassalize to Saladin and settle a city in the same pig/rice spot. Our settler was getting there in 2 turns.

625 - Stalin is a free state again.

730 - Bulbed Philo with a GS and founded Taoism.

890 - Oversea cultural contact with Hatshepsut.

930 - Bribed Stalin to declare war on Hammurabi.

1010 - DoW on Hammurabi.

1050 - Horse city is captured:



1140 - Second city captured. Peace for cash. Lost more catapults than expected and macemen are available in a few turns. Going to take more catas to the front and upgrade swords to maces. At that point, not going to stop until Hammurabi is dead. Still not sure if I'm going to accept him as a vassal.


The new frontier:



Techs:



Glance:



I think I'm going to fall behind on the tech board during this war and the post-war recovery, but hope to catch up in Renaissance with the new aquired land.



 
Can i play this with the unofficial patch for 3.17 ?
If I can i will give it a try on Prince/Epic
If i fail theirs Noble still their :p

It's a standard scenario save...I can't think of anything you wouldn't be able to play it with.
 
Hi

Noble, Marathon, 1140 AD


Spoiler :
Salad killed off so I know have Island to myself. Hanni passed by in caraval. He TRIED to be sneaky, using a pseudonym for some reason but I recognized him :p.

I seem waaay behind him techwise so I need to catch up somehow. I also need to build up captured cities and settle all the open spaces left on my isalnd befoe AI's start trying to. BK already tried and settled a lil city on my island but it was garrisoned by a chariot when my impi found it so he raised it. After that it was phony war for a bit but he willing to accept peace not too long afterwards and we doing a trade so I can get spices. He's been to busy fighting with giggles the two of them been declaring and redeclaring on each other whole game.


Here is how my Island looks at this point:



Still LOTS of places to settle.

Demographics at this point:



It looks like I seem to be doing ok compared to other civs but:



Tech sitch shows I am waay behind and have to catch up somehow if I want to get lib before Hanni

Top 5 cities:



Phooey Ulundi built another shiny and it STILL ranked at bottom



I happen to think it turning into a VERY nice city tyvm. What does that stupid ranker know anyways? :p

My hammer city:



I checked in wiki and its name is a Zulu word which means "Even the ppl who live there cant pronounce it" honest really :p

So now that warring is over next phase is settle out my island and try to catch up on tech and some shinys hopefully before going after next target. So probably a long peace period now until astronomy.

BUT before I go the long peace period made possible by loooong war period and it was lead by some guys who did so well I gave em their own names :)

First:



Sargon is gerneral, chief medic and leader of main attack stack, His army is lead by 4 VERY tuff city busters:



Bingo :)



Bongo :)



Bango :)



And Erving :)

I cant wait to see what they can do once they become infantry :)

Anyways thats it at this point no plan for a vic type yet mostly just puttering along now and will figure out something when I meet rest of the AI and see how world looks. AT least i hope I figure out something anyways. SO wish me luck :)

Kaytie
 
Kaytie:

Spoiler :


Two things:

1. The Islander (Hannibal) lacks both philosophy and education - both pre-reqs for liberalism. If you say put a bulb into education and head to lib soon, you'll kill him in the lib race by a wide margin with that BPT on noble (and would occasionally get it on emperor). I'm surprised to see him doing better than the other AIs though - must be a function of marathon again. In my test runs he was weak and they were at noble.

2. You are way, way above noble level, even if you don't want to admit it ;). Granted, I play below my level a lot for fun too. You can stay at noble forever if it's fun for you and it won't bother me and shouldn't bother anyone else, but as someone who's made jumps from cheiftan to immortal across this year, I can easily tell that your ability is far beyond noble...with focus you could probably win monarch at least (the maintenance/:) cap expansion timing balance shift markedly after monarch, so while you have enough warmonger ability to win past monarch it would likely be an adjustment for you in terms of what can be done when). Am I saying to do that? Of course not - do what's most fun, but I figured you should know that people aren't just saying it....you really are ready if you feel like doing that.

Actually, if you want to move up a good places are this series and possibly the hall of fame - which allows cooking map settings to make winning far easier than it would be with a standard map/random opponents.

 
@ KaytieKat

Spoiler :
I'm a little confused as to how Bingo, Bongo, Bango and Erving came into existence. If I understand the screens, their levels greatly exceed their experience points. How did you do that? :blush:
 
Kaytie:

Spoiler :
I agree with TMIT here. I've seen your last three games (play your leader, lhc and this one) and obviously you are ready to move up to Prince. You are going to steamroll this one, too. I think I've played no more than 10/12 games at Noble. Struggled a bit on the last one (pyl), but moved up to Prince anyway.

And I've had the same idea, before looking at your spoiler. :lol:
Named my C5 Elephant Surus, wich was Hannibal's bravest elephant in the Alps' crossing.


Round 3, Prince, to 1575:

Spoiler :

1255 - Declared war on Hammurabi again, with new catapults and axes/swords upgraded to maces.

1265 - The Islander? Don't know what to expect from this guy, but he didn't do anything strange so far :lol:

1265 - Opis is captured.

1300 - Sippar conquered.

1325 - Next AI is Pacal and he's the tech leader, as usual.

1350 - Dur-Kurigalzu captured, Hagia Sophia inside.

1355 - Huayna Capac. And strangely enough, he's not doing very well on the tech board.

1375 - Saladin's world is round. I think I've built 2 workboats and 1 galley so far in this game.

1380 - Last AI is Gilgamesh.

1385 - Babylon and its academy is captured. It was the sole source of elephants for Hammurabi.

1405 - Pacal is the first to Liberalism. Beat us by 10 turns.

1420 - Nippur conquered and 7 workers join the Zulu empire.

1560 - Borsippa, Hammurabi's last stand, is conquered:



The army, lead by Surus the jumbo. He deserved a name in this war:



Old Babilonia (Sippar culture-flipped to Stalin, and he's putting more pressure on other cities):





The core:







Tech situation. Not so good, but our slider was at 30-40% most of the time so far. I hope to catch up with the new land:



Glance:




The continent:




I hope to get Stalin to spontaneously vassalize, and use it as a buffer in a war vs Saladin.

But I'm not sure at this point. Stalin has enough on his hands and a few turns ago it was possible to bribe him vs Saladin. Speaking of Saladin, he's the obvious target now, before he runs too far away on the tech board.
I'm mostly building infrastructures right now, to fix the economy, but rifles are coming soon.
I may upgrade those CR maces to rifles, spam some trebs and go for him and his Hindu shrine in Mecca.

But I need to be careful with the other continents at the same time. A lot of people at this point can build galeons and start some intercontinental war. And I don't have a lot of fans oversea. I'm kinda worried about Pacal, but Stalin can be bribed vs him, probably. If he's not his target already.

I don't know. Saladin is the most obvious target, but one of my two friends.
Still, I don't want to start an intercontinental war without the total control of my island, be it conquered or shared with vassals.

Arg, decisions.


 
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