Monarch Student^ IX - Darius

There is only one way to not lose and you know it.

I have provided you adequate tools for survival. Don't fail me.

I'm playing absolutely terribly...going for the wrong techs, no managing cities at all, etc. Fortunately this map is RIDICULOUSLY nice.

Settled 1W. Start was frustrating - couldn't build WB first and worker wouldn't have anything to do. Ended up going warrior>wb>worker>wb>rax>immortals while teching fishing>AH>wheel>mining>BW.

Horses discovered underneath Persepolis

I was gonna play nice, but somebody boxed me in!

Not much of a fight:


Nice guy, Pacal. He built 3 cities for me, founded Budda, and even had a couple cottages down, two of which were already villages.

Empire at end of war:


Awesome little chokepoint to the west. I also notice a lot of coast, and though it was a bit late I decided to go for it:


Talk about a rock solid economy. Continued to expand a bit, mostly blocking off my penninsula with a sweet double fish+iron city. At 25AD things look like this:


I'm stomping them in tech already and it is just going to get worse. Lots of good cottage terrain + TGL trade routes is pounding out the tech. I'm planning to move the capital to the old Maya capital for cottage-heavy bureau abuse while my current capital becomes a monster GP farm:


In reality my position should be way better than it is now. Happy resources are scarce and I didn't do enough early on to alleviate that. I took too long to tech Monarchy and then took way too long to build more MPs, I ignored Calendar for a long time (no silks), and I should have gotten a city up near the furs going already.

Next I'll work on fixing the happy issues while settling 4 more cities to fill out my territory. I have my main commerce cities running but need more production cities. I also need to beef up my defenses in the west because I'm pretty sure Alex will be coming for me soon - actually he, Kublai, and I are all in different religions.

Unless there's some crazy runaway civ out there, this game is pretty much over. But I'll probably finish it anyways...

Crazy rush.

You got extremely lucky, if you know what I mean.

You may get unlucky and attack too late.

Yeah, Pacal didn't build a single Holkan. I know he had BW shortly before I finished him. But if he had gotten just one holkan in his capital with the 40% culture + hill, the rush wouldn't have worked. Lucky me

I settled one west and it worked out great since horse popped up right in the cap after AH. I went AH>Wheel (since horses popped)>BW. Would have gone BW second if horses required expansion.

Quickly ran into Pacal. Interesting (and wicked) pick for a counter to Darius magic. On one hand he's likely the best counter to Darius from a tech/financial perspective and second has probably the best early UU counter to Darius next to Shaka (don't tell me he's in here somewhere too). The early conclusion being that this Pacal dude has to go and has to go quick.

@dualmaster - did you actually encounter Holkans in your rush? I noticed you took a 3rd city and figured Pacal would have them by then. I took only two cities.

I noticed Pacal boxing me in with a non-hill city just to the east with only one archer. Dispatched my first Immortal to quickly take him out as I whipped a few more for the rush on his cap. The cap was on a hill so it took a few Immortals to take out his archers. Archers are deadmeat out in the open but still tough on a hill city. The downside to taking Pacal so early is not giving him a chance to build or get a religion. I got two cities but nothing else. Regardless, I had to get him before the Holkans.

With pottery one of my first techs, I quickly started the first city focusing on cottages with all the floodplains. The Mayan cap is going to geared more toward unit production now and then later will probably be my new capital. my cap will focus on the Great Lighthouse and then GPs.

Excellent chokepoint to the west. I must put a city there asap. I encountered Alex and Kubla on the western landmass. Alex hasn't settled the copper to the south, so I figure he's still prime for a good beatdown. However, I wind up in a long grinding battle with Alex. After finally taking Athens, with one city left, Alex seeks help from Kubla and becomes his vassal. Now I have to contend with both as I'm now trying to get cats/swords out to the front. Now I have to quickly whip some spears to counter Khan. Interestingly, Khan doesn't send a big army but rather a couple of elephants and a cat. I'm able to counter everything he sends while keeping Alex at bay. Finally destroy the Greeks and make peace with Khan (same religion so he's immediately back at pleased)

I grinded this war out to long I think. However, with Darius and my GP farm cap I was able to keep pace with tech. I'm interested in advice on better rushing tactics. I sometimes just don't bring the optimal amount of units.

Note: I've been trying these MS games out just recently, having played a few to little success. I've just recently become consistently dominant at Noble. I believe I have a chance to win this one though. I'm on the path now to probably take Liberalism

I settled 1 west and started on AH and a worker. A scout popped from the hut.
Met Pacal very quickly (damn) and since he was blocking me i decided he had to go. I looked up the Holkan and found out that it didn't need copper to be build.
It turned out i had settled on horse and because i had gotten The Wheel from my second hut i started on immortals. Got some gold from another hut and then lost the scout to a bear. Met the same bear with my other scout and won.

Pacal founded Hinduism. I met Alexander in 3280 bc and Kublai in 3000 bc. Found a good point for a blocker city at the small part of the continent just east of Alexander.

After Pacal settles his second city i attack. I capture a worker on the first turn and take his capital on the second (no holkans). I destroy his second city.

550 bc i get my first GS and build a academy. In 100 bc i complete the Great Library and start on the national Epic.

It is now 25 ad and i have 5 cities with room for 5 more i think. My blocking city is in place. Alexander and Kublai both had judaism so i converted too. They are both pleased with me now (i don't think it matters with those two though, they might DOW on me anyway).

My tech path was AH-->Wheel from hut before i got AH)-->mining-->BW-->fishing-->pottery-->writing-->Aesth-->Math-->Alph-->and now i'm working on music to try and get a golden age with the G Artist.

No, he never built any Holkans but did get a third city out. He even put all 3 cities in nice locations so I had 4 solid cities early without building any settlers

Some more sloppy play by me, but it really doesn't matter.

Persepolis pops a border revealing land to the south and a new friend shows up:


Notice in the background that with the culture pop I can now send ships to the south. Signing open borders also opens up foreign intercontinental trade routes - which in turn kicks the Great Lighthouse into high gear:


Meanwhile my immortals stay busy and one of my vets makes 10XP to open up HE:


Persepolis continues it's role towards a GP farm:


Alex makes a demand:


No problem, pal! I knew refusal would make me a target for war, so I decided to cave to any demand he made. Then a new buddy shows up:


Techwise he's the usual neanderthal. I popped two GMs which were used for some lucrative trade missions:

I spent most of the 1000 years at 100% slider because of these trade missions. I think Chemistry took me 7 turns to tech? The only bad news is I didn't get a scientist until 775AD. Immediately built an academy in the capital (which I moved to Mutal) and it gave me an immediate +56/turn.

The global tech rate is way way down. Take a look at the date that I found Tao:


It turns out that caving to Alex's demands was very smart:


And of course he soon comes demanding:


I declare. Alex is completely protecting me from Khan. I've killed a scout and that's all I've seen of the war.

Degaulle comes demanding:

I almost said no, and probably could have without any consequences (he can't even attack me for a long time to come). But I'm playing nice...

The empire at 1000AD:


So, the two other civs on my continent are busy killing each other while Alex protects me and lets me tech. The other continent has Shaka and Degaulle who are way behind in tech. Can anything else go better for me in this game? I think there is one more isolated civ out there - they could have been killed by Shaka/Degaulle, but there doesn't seem to be enough land on the continent to have had a third civ. So I'm expecting to meet some backward civ out there.

I was thinking about taking Steel from Lib and going cannon+draft musket to roll my continent but I'm feeling lazy so I might just hunker down and tech ahead for a while. I can take lib anytime but might wait and get a big tech from it.

Meanwhile I'm just about to get circumnav. Universities are going up and then Oxford in the capital. Globe just finishing in Persepolis for the GP farm. For tech I'm finishing PP for the bonus, then I'll probably go to economics followed by a run to democracy (maybe take demo from lib?). I have a GA (from music) that I'll use to kick off a golden age and make a big civic switch to us/fs/eman/fm/fr and then laugh as my economy takes off.

Right now at 100% my capital is producing +217 and overall the civ is producing +505. I have no idea if this is good? The capital will likely be 400+ once Oxford finishes (especially with PP and FS).

Space would be easy to win, but maybe I'll try to win with style

Settled 1W started teching fishing then AH.

Build order in capital was war, wb, worker, barracks(for rushing of Pacal), ImmX11, WB, WB, Imm, worker, library(current).

3925BC Meet Pacal (He must be real close) Hope have horses to rush him.

3425BC Pacal founds Hindu.

3400BC AH is in and i settled on horses.

2450BC Meet Alex.

2000BC Meet Kubai.

1475BC Declae on Pacal with 11 Immortals.

1450BC Capture Lakamha. Keep it.

1400BC Capture Mutal. Keep it. Lost 5-6 Immortals though. He had whipped a Holkan and had 2 archers in a 40% hill capital.

1325BC Razed Uxmal. Was pop 1 and had only 1 archer. City was north of Lakamha. It was where the barb city is now.

1300BC Find Pacals last city and capture it. Keep it. It had 2 archers in it on hill but my 3 immortals took it 1 lost immortal. Pacal dead.

1000BC is where I stopped. My tech order after AH was TW, mining, BW, Pottery, Writing, Sailing, Masonry, Mysticism, Alpha(current).

Land 1000BC

Persepolis Think I am moving capital to Mutal and making this GP Farm.

Mutal. Future capital?


Going forward

1. Need get more workers. Only have 2 due to building immortals to rush Pacal.

2. Need to explore more. My scout died to lion early.

3. 2 barb Cities need capturing.

4. Alex is in WHEOOHRN. Don't know where he is or if I am target.

I have a level 4 unit for HE.

Looking at map is GL a possibilty? Will have about 6 cities coastal when i settle them. Might be to late though plus I am worried about alex is in WHEOOHRN.

Moving capital to mutal seems like a no brainer. OU and WS city I'm thinking with the holy city. Hope I can get a Prophet to shrine. Pers will be a Good GP farm I think and later maybe GT for drafting.

Played out pretty like for everyone else. Settled 1W. Went AH / TW / BW. Found that I had settled on horses, which was a nice surprise.

Just as I was gonna settle my second city on the floodplains to the west, Pacal snatches it right under my nose. Nevermind, as I'm only planning to build 2 cities and than mass produce troops. Settled to the north instead at the same time as bronze appears there, nice.

Find the others, gets Judaism spred to me by someone. Converts for the extra happiness to allow the whipping that is about to commence. Build granaries and barracks in my cities, and start whipping Immortals. Pacals capital is on a hill with 60% culture as he has built the SH.

Take the floodplain city without much resistance, but damn are those Holkans annoying. Take 10 turns of peace to heal and whip more troops. By now I'm chopping and whipping like crazy which allows me to defeat Pacal pretty effortlessly. The mongolians also declare at me for some reason, but I never see any troops and quickly switch to Buddhism when I've taken the holy city, as everyone else is flying the Buddhism flag.

Quickly settle that excellent chokepoint to the west and get CoL. The start looks promising even though some guy on another continent seem to be wonder spamming like there is no tomorrow. Have started on a galley to get some scouting going.

Plan is to get Mongols to friendly, they are usually easy enough, and then either settle peacefully or attack the Greeks depending on how strong they seem.

Edit: This map is a giant setup! I can't see any other way it could play out (not that I don't like it though).

As like everyone else, found out I settled on horses. Didnt build a second city, took out the closest neighbour right away. He only got one holkan out before his demise. After that I went for cottages, many of them. Which in turn resulted in quite a poor hammer output..

Won liberalism 'race' (nobody else was even close) at 1200 ad or something close to it. Teched to rifles/cannons. Also took the little island with dyes/gems at this point. Took out france/capitulated zulu with only one city remaining........ Worst mistake of the game! At some point of this conquest I upgraded masses of rifles to infantry and swept through the rest of the continent. Next in line was alexander, who fell quickly..

Too quickly, as Kublai declaered on me and took few of the cities I just conquered. Shortly after peace deal run out, I took the cities and few extra back.. Only to end up at 65% of world pop and 62,5% land. That one zulu city would of been enough. Well, I had loads of troops with few tanks mixed in so headed for pacal. Got three of this cities including capital. 63.2% land... Then video memory error finished the game for me. Most likely the game would of been done when the cities I just captured got their first border pop. Was a fun game and I re-learned a lot of forgotten warring skill.. Next time I'll remember to make enough naval units to cover my transports, and will make siege units in a better proportion compared to the rest of the troops.

Met the other civ, who was just as backward as I expected:


Finally take lib, although there was no threat to it:


Kick off a golden age and switch to US/Bur/Emanc/FM/FR and end up with a nice science capital:


Two more wonders (I didn't build many this game):


I also had to start a war...you might guess why I decided to take this crappy island city first:

Yeah, marines vs longbows Shaka was bribed into the war against me. He finally showed up with a stack to take the French city of Chinook. The stack was promptly slaughtered by my marines and Shaka capped immediately!

HC then decided to do something stupid:


And after some marines and tanks visited his land, he capped too.

I also made peace with Degaulle but he wouldn't cap. Anyways I researched up to fission and rocketry before zeroing the slider and doing mass rushbuy of tanks and nukes. It didn't take long before I was ready:


To make it interesting I DOWed all three remaining civs (Kublai, Alex, and Degaulle) at the same time. Then I think some nukes went off .

The French War:


The Greek War:


I really had fun using the combination of nukes+naval assault. I was able to take down Alex and Khan way faster than if I had to march through his territory. Oh yeah, I just used tanks and nukes during the war. I think I built 3 siege units the whole game.

End game info:


It was a pretty fun stomp.

Will play on Monarch, Epic with Huts.

Settle 1W to get cow as we're only losing ocean.

Rush if:

• We have horses in the BFC, and
• Opponent is not protective, and
• Opponnet has no metal or has easily deniable metal, and
• Opponent isn't Pacal (he'll have spearman that don't need metal)

Assuming we're rushing I'll look for a worker steal

Initial techs depend on horses so AH first then:

• If horses: Mining->BW->Fishing->Wheel->Pottery
• If no horses: Fishing->Mining->BW->Wheel->Pottery

Economy: Cottages

To 1 AD was pretty much just filling out land. 35BC GS pops and I academy in Mutal.

Only trades i made during that time was aest to alex for PH and math and aest to kubai for IW and 30 gold.

70AD switched to HR since happiness was limited.

505AD win music race and start a GA.

685AD Bulbed philo and found taoism.

850AD Bulb most of education.

910AD Meet De Gaulle.

930AD Meet Shaka.

950AD Palace moved to Mutal. Made Pers GP farm/Draft central. NE and GT went there.

960AD Trade CoL to alex for HBR, ARC, and 30 gold.

990AD Kubai declares on me.

1080AD peace with kubai.

1270AD GS pops bulb most of PP.

1435AD GS pops start GA.

1515AD Meet final ai HC.

1530AD Declare on kubai and take New sarai.

1535AD capture Ghuzz.

1555AD Capture Beshbalik.

1560AD AP stops war.

1615AD Redeclare on Kubai.

1625AD Capture Turfan.

1630AD Kubai vassals to alex and he declares on me.

1635AD AP stops war.

1655AD Shaka declares on me.

1670AD Shaka captures Ghuzz and I recapture next turn.

1704AD AP gives New Sarai back to Kubai.

1710AD HC colonizes GW. I declare on ALex.

1712AD Take New sarai back. Peace with Shaka.

1720AD Capture Argos and Sparta.

1728AD Capture Athens. Thanks for the wonders. I later put HE and WP here.


1730AD Stops Kubai war with me. He broke free earlier.

1732 to 1750AD I keep capturing cities from alex. He then vassals to Kubai.

1750 to 1758AD I capture 5 cities including jewish shrine from Kubai capital.


1762AD Take Alex's last city.

1786AD Take Kubai's last city. Continent finally mine.

1834AD I declare on Shaka after building up navy.

1836AD I capture 3 of his cities.

1844AD I capture 3 more shaka cities and he vassals. I gift 4 cities back to him. Keep 2 that were on island south of new sarai.

1854AD Declae on Degaulle.

1856AD Capture Orleans and De Gaulle vassals.

1858AD Domination win.


Screenshots of end.

Power of the draft.

Settle 1W to gain cow and lose ocean.

pops huts for a total of 166 gold, two maps

tech path: AH>Mining>BW>wheel>writing>pottery>fishing>mysticism>HBR>?

Persepolis went: warrior>worker>barracks>immortals

Meet Pacal on turn three.

Found horse underneath Persepolis.

Pacal founds Hinduism on turn 11

Buddism founded somewhere else on turn 21

Meet alexander on turn 26. He founded buddism.

Bw on turn 29. one copper source, have to make sure pacal doesn't get it.

Found alexander. I think i should settle a blocking city to block off my continent, or do i rush him? I think i'll see if he has metal, if yes then block. if no, then late rush.

Meet Kublia on turn 39. not going to rush him. Maybe phant +cat war?

Pacall founds his second city, 6W1S. i'm thinking 7-8 immortals for a rush i have two now and another comeing in next turn

Get open borders with pacal.

decalre war on pacal on turn 55

capture lakahama, i keep, it, it will become a commerce city once i get cottages down.

lose three archers against mutal, one withdraw, one win. i hope i beat the remaining archer next turn, otherwise this rush is done.

YES!!! i win a battle at 44% odds to capture Mutal, and Pacall is dead. I get a 10 xp unit in the process. He already has combat II so what should i do with him?

Greece doesn't have metal. I am thinking about rushing, except with 10 immortals/horse archers.

Revolt to slavery turn 67. hadn't needed it before now, and i am gonning to whip my first thing, a granary soon.

Ok i'm at 1000 BC now, i am at a decision point; Do i go down the Alphabet/ currency line and trade for back fill? Or do i go to literature for an early GLIB? My empire is Persepolis, Lakahama, and Mutal

I have a scout on Greece's possible copper; Should i rush him, and if so, with what? Immortals or HAs?

Please note, i took a lot of pictures during this, i just can seem to get them to come out right on paint, so i can't show them here. hers a link to the one i tried:http://teddy.sauyet.com/images/Monarch student 1.jpg(its the one of my empire)

I don't think there's any need to rush Greece. If you capture, the maintenance might kill your economy, and if you raze, Kublai will just resettle.

Since you just finished off Pacal there's a lot of land to backfill. Do it.

You could also block the land bridge between you and Alex with a city, and close borders. That way not even their galleys can penetrate.

Awesome war. So many nukes fired...

It's like "Who cares if I reduce the world into rubble... as long as I rule!"