Monarch Student^ XXXV Mehmed II

Monarch/Normal
Started out by moving the Warrior 1NE, in the vague hope that it’d uncover something juicy, and found some plains, with a few lovely cows frolicking around on them. I’ll leave those there for now, before I wander in and kill them all.
I was quite happy to settle in place, I really didn’t want to spend time wandering around hoping for something better to jump out in front of me. Lucked out with the placement though, as just as I settled Istanbul, the fog of war raised some and revealed some wine to the west, which would be happily enveloped in the BFC in the next few turns, giving Istanbul some much needed commerce, which it otherwise lacks. Started on a Warrior for some nice military stability, whilst the one I already have goes exploring.
Research-wise, made a start on Pottery, so that I could start putting some cottages down and drag some commerce out of Istanbul.
Around Turn 6, Istanbul’s BFC expanded, grabbing the wine, and revealing another to its immediate west, as well as some cows to the northwest. Some preliminary exploration from the Warriors also reveals that north of Istanbul are some pretty nice flood plains, as well as some elephants, which will probably be the site of my next city, providing more commerce whilst Istanbul becomes a Wonder/Military city, as I mine out the hills and chop out the forests.
Once Pottery was done, I shot for Mysticism, hoping for an early Stonehenge.
Ulp, never mind, Hinduism is founded in a distant land, meaning at least one Civ already has Mysticism, and is probably already working on Stonehenge. Still, one can always hope. Also, as the Warriors travel northwards, they come to the borders of Ghandi’s India. Not to mention that he already has archers. Jesus. Ghandi, I thought you were a peaceful man? This troubling news pretty much means an early rush on Ghandi is out. If he has archers in the field, there’s no doubt he has some sitting in his settlements, and they’ll chew my warriors up. I need military, and I need it fast.
Garrison Warrior in Istanbul is complete, so I start work on a settler, to grab the land to the north before Ghandi does, if he even wants it, and then a worker to start to make the most of the land we have now.
Once Mysticism was done – a wasted seven turns if there ever was one – I started on Mining, to take advantage of the hills around Istanbul. After that, I’m headed for Hunting. Not for Scouts, I can’t be bothered, especially with no huts, there’s no point, but just so I could move towards Archery, just for a little more military security. How weird is it that Ghandi makes me nervous about an attack? The same turn, my Warriors in the north nearly get their arse handed to them by some wolves (despite a 99.6% chance of victory) so have to hunker down and not die for a few turns.
A boring few turns later, Hunting was done with, so I started on Archery. There was utterly no way I was having Ghandi, of all people, arrow my city up. The Warriors in the north were screwed by the RNG and eaten by lions, so now I sort of do have a point in building Scouts, just so they can move away from things that want to kill them quicker.
Settled Edirne on the floodplains to the north as planned, picking up both elephant tiles. No need for a Monument, as the borders will close up in a couple of turns, so started work on a Worker to start placing cottages, before placing archers when Archery finally techs.
Once it had finished, research went straight for Masonry, on the way to Bronze Working, arming myself to maybe take Ghandi out in the early game. I know it doesn’t really fit with Mehmed’s traits, but he’s a bit too close for comfort for my liking.
Workers in Istanbul were finally done, started on a Scout, just because there’s a lot of map I can’t see and it’s making me edgy. At the same time, Boudica and her breasts arrived, also making me edgy. It was no surprise that she had more points than me.
Which brings us to 2000BC, and this save. I’m last on a table of three Civs; both of my cities are building up a small defence force and I’m heading for Bronze Working in preparation for a war with Ghandi – he’s moving far too close to me, and north seems like the only place I can expand into, and he’s got the only source of stone I can see. I have Scouts moving to the west, hoping to find a reason to settle another city, and workers are finally getting to make the most of the surrounding resources. I’m really not sure how well I’m doing at all.

T1: Move barb 1 NE. See cows, but not worth moving away from fresh water. SIP I already have AG and trees are everywhere. Start teching Mining. Begin worker.
T6: Meet Gandhi to the north via archer. Nice friendly AI nearby who might found a religion and spread it everywhere.
T8: Tech BW.
T11: See tasty rice/ivory city along the river. Possible 2nd city there.
T13: Worker done, working Corns first. Building Warrior.
T15: Gandhi founds Hinduism.

T20: Some nice empty land out west. Need to scout N of ivory with next warrior. N looks like a good place to plant 3 cities to wall off Gandhi or anyone else.

T23: BW done, there's 3 bronze sites nearby. No worries there. Holding off on slavery. Tech Mystisicm.
T25: Warrior finishes. Build another warrior. Then probably Settler.
T26: Meet Buddhist Boudica. Somehow she hasn't met Gandhi yet. I doubt they'll like each other much.
T28: Warrior finishes. 2nd warrior has to heal so I won't have enough scouted to be sure of my 2nd city yet. Build one more warrior.
T30: Myst finishes, not much tech available is going to help in the short term. Not going to settle a cow site immediately. I'll be laying a few cottages down soon and writing would up the tech pace soonish. Starting Pottery>Writing, may change depending on scouting. Warrior finishes, starting Settler.
T33: Can already see Gandhi's boarders, not good. Rapid expansion is even more important. Another warrior move north notices that he has a stone tile. Hmmm. Bet I could flip that tile. Do I really want to go for the Pyramids? I'm not Philo. I suck managing specialists and I'm used to Prince, not Monarch. Also I have a ton of land if I can wall the AI off. I've mapped it out. Absent some aggressive expansion from India, I can settle at least 12 cities. Probably more than I really need.

Try to grab the stone:


Or not:


I decide on the less aggressive and economy killing 2nd route. I'll still prob have a few more cities than needed once I settle the tundra areas.

T37:Settler finishes. Moving toward Bronze site NW. Build worker.
T40: Chop out worker. Have him road to 2nd city. Start on third mine, then will start chopping river grassland for Settlers/Workers. I'm 4 turns from pop 5 and will build warriors until then. Pottery Finished. Starting on Writing.
T41: Edrine settled. Starting on monument to build blocking culture quickly.

T45: I'm thinking about switching to slavery now. Doesn't help for my food poor second city. I'm working 3 mines and the 2 corn. I think I'm going to avoid whipping right now and go in a settler/worker chain with helping chops. Mistake?
T49: Oh, that's marble just S of me. Lol. Might place my 5th city down there even if the tundra is awful.
T52: Settle Ankara just east of Edrine. Build monument. 5 turns from finishing writing and starting AH. Good enough.
T57: Copper and Edrine hooked up. Edrine has already finished the monument and is about done with the Granary with the help of the copper mine's hammers.
T58: Writing complete. And oops, still need Hunting for the ivory. Will tech that then AH.
T60: Bursa founded in the Ivory/Wheat site east of Ankara. That should wall off Gandhi after boarder pops. Another turn from having my 4th worker. I think I'll create a 5th then build a Library.
T63: Workers and hunting done. Now seems to be a good time to revolt into slavery. Can help whip the remaining monuments and I should have 6 happy cap in a few turns from the ivory. Teching AH.
T65: Gandhi reminded me I forgot to open boarders..doh. Opened with both AIs.
T72: AH finishes. I think I want that marble. Teching Fishing>Masonry>then prob Aesthetics. Library done, will run sci specialist once pop 6. Building Settler.

T76: Just past 1000BC and I have 4 cities and a 5th one in a couple of turns. My warrior died scouting so I haven't even seen where Boudica is. I'm not sure what's going on. Here's my diplomacy screenshot, they still haven't met each other and I'm not sure how. I'm going to assume we're isolated on this Continent with conflicting early religions. They've founded Judaism also so the rest of the world doesn't have one.

As of 975BC:


Diplo Screenshots:


In hindsight, I could have gone for the more aggressive stone city placement. I still think I chose better but I'm curious what others think.

As for where to go from here, I first plan to drop my slider after masonry and wait to raise it until I have Libraries in at least 4 of my cities. From here, there's all kinds of possibilities. I'm not favoring early war. I still have multiple cities to found. 2 with happy resources. I'm also not too concerned about getting declared on if I avoid a religion. I guess Boudica could without knowing about Gandhi. I'll miss the extra happy though.

Do AIs with no religion stay away from religious techs and go elsewhere or do they specifically shoot for Confucianism and other religious techs if they don't get that? I'm used to lower difficulties, so I'm tempted to try to play with the religions a bit. See if I could deny the rest of the world religions and then decide if I want to create a peaceful world or incite wars. I'm thinking that's risky when my tech rate is going to drop as I expand further. Beelining toward CoL is tempting. The cheap courthouses could ease the expansion cost.

I think I'd like to keep things peaceful for me until at least rifling and then plan taking India. That's not set in stone though. I could go after a culture win. More cities than normal would probably slow things down, but I should have access to at least 3 religions in the near future. We'll see but I like the start.

View attachment Mello Monarch Student Mehmed BC-0975.CivBeyondSwordSave

Hurrah, somehow I’m the second largest Civ in the world.
Not much occurred for a while. Once I’d achieved Bronze Working, I was very happy to find that I had three sources of copper smack bang in my lands. Two would soon be absorbed into Istanbul’s borders, whilst one was to the West; all set to be settled before Ghandi got his greedy hands on it.
Over the next couple of turns, I researched Fishing, just to make the most out of my coastal position, sent another Scout to check my territory – we’re on the southern section of the continent, which was obvious enough, but it’s a small point. Makes me want to say island. Settled Ankara next to the copper I wanted, as well as the cows that Istanbul had missed. Still being closed in by Ghandi, who’s busying himself expanding west, like me. I will definitely have to sweep him out of the way, as he seems the biggest threat. I’ve seen nothing from Boudica since her scouts rolled in, so she’s not yet a priority.
Istanbul is starting on the Pyramids, chopping out the forests around the city to contribute to the construction, whilst I tech Iron Working, so I can crump Ghandi. The pacifist bastard.
Turn 93 or thereabouts, Pyramids still trundling along, lost some more scouts to the bloody barbarians, and cottage spamming around Edirne, fuelling the research, and keeping me in the green, a happy occasion for me.
So things are going well for me right now, and I’m fairly happy. Just finished Iron Working, the Pyramids are nearly done, and I’m pretty ready to go for Ghandi in foreseeable future. Next research priority is Writing, so I can scout out Ghandi’s lands and see where all his stuff is located, come up with some sort of coherent battle plan.
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Not much exciting to report. Settled in place, teched BW early then pottery for the FP cottages. Cottaged capitol and flood plain site to the north. We had marble so picked up ToA, parthenon, great library. Fluked sankore. Other than that it was standard fare: tech to jans/cannons, spank boudica (gandhi peacevasseled to me after I bribed her out of war vs him the 2nd time) and cap her, tech space. After edging out zara by a couple turns to internet there was no hope. He got to fusion about 5 turns after I launched a 12 turn space ship. He completed his 2 engines with 3 turns left until I won and never launched. This despite his ludicrous 22% land pre-war and capitulation of everyone on his continent besides sury (who was about to take it on the chin also).

Basically, space came down to internet. If he'd gotten that first, he'd have blown me out. Instead, I got it and as a result beat him by about 10 turns; pretty strong project. Internet handed me rocketry, ecology, refrigeration (shaved cost on superconductor)...easily enough to make a 9 turn difference!

Decided to go after CoL. I also notice the Oracle is still available. Without any pressing builds I'll give it a shot.

T78: Hinduism spreads. I'll stay without a religion. Settler done build Granary.
T79: Teching Med>Priesthood. Gandhi and Boudica have finally met. Already annoyed w/ each other.
T81: Koyna founded S to grab marble.
T94: Finish Oracle. Pick CoL. Found Confu in Konya. I don't take it as the state religion. Going to build some courthouses and temples and tech Monarchy for more happy.
T101: Monarchy finishes. Immediately switch into HR. Going Poly>Aesthetics>Lit for the Great Library.


Also, Gandhi settles on top of me. Not too worried but I might lose a cottage or two. Also I found Boudica way up N. Even more reasons to attack Gandhi. I hope Boudica holds off for a bit though.



T112: Settled Samsun. Decide to chase after a few wonders that I have a discount on. Trying Statue of Zeus in Ankara, Parthenon at Edrine, and shortly Great Library in the capitol.

T117: Gandhi finally has Alphabet.
T118: Dump a turn of teching into Alphabet then trade Aesthetics for it. Noticed I don't have sailing yet which my 2 coastal cities would very much like.
T120: Sailing done, Even if I don't choose a religion soon, denying the Sistine Chapel from the AI sounds good. Teching Math>Music.
T122: Statue of Zeus is mine.
T123: The Great Library is mine.
T124: Pop Great Scientist. Building an Acadamy in Istanbul.
T125: The Parthenon is mine. Math also finishes.
T127: Went for Temple of Artimis too, missed it by one turn. Nice failure cash though. Gandhi settles another city, Agra, in my face.

T129: Boudica who's been preping for war for a while declares on Gandhi. Didn't think she'd wait. Hopefully India doesn't get owned too badly. Boudica can be put down if needed though.

T131: Music is finished and I get the great person. Will likely save for a GA.
T132: HAHAHA. Boudica had some troops down by me, went up, sacked and razed Agra. Thanks Booty.

T133. Unfortunantly, just realized Gandhi lacks metal. If he has iron he hasn't built any visible swordsmen. Just chariots and archers. This could get ugly. I can't bribe her out of war for even 4 techs if I wanted.

T135: 500 AD, founded Gaziantep, and I pop another Great Scientist and notice I can bulb Philosophy. It's one of the two remaining religions and the other 4 are all on this continent. I'm seriously considering doing it then teching Mono>Theo>Divine right. Didn't exactly expect that, but I haven't done an AP cheese before. Thinking the right plan for that is, as soon as I tech Theo I revolt into Hinduism and build it. Right before its complete change to a newer religion no on has. Tech to optics. time spreading the religion so each civ gets it's same turn. Win diplo cheese.

I think I should tech Civil Service first though. My cities don't have outstanding production and a Bureaucracy capitol would help. I'm not sure if I make up lost turns on the AP but the commerce multiplier earlier probably makes it worth it.

EDIT: UGH, I'm an idiot. I had my religions backwards, Boudica is Buddhist and I don't have that religion yet. That will make this a bit trickier. Just need enough to make sure Boudica doesn't own me in war.

My cities as of 500AD:


Tech Tree:


Tech Race:


View attachment Mello Monarch Student Mehmed AD-0500.CivBeyondSwordSave

I think I saw elsewhere that the Mod used matters. I'm using BUFFY, not sure of the version but it contains BUG 4.2. It's been a long time since I installed that so I should probably look for the upgraded version.

Started out relatively easy. Managed to wall off Gandhi and secure 9 nice cities. Boudica capped gandhi in the classical era. I cottaged everything and mass rushbought cavalry and swept all of gandhi's cities and boudicas cities up to the small isthmus in the north and capped her. I then turned up my slider and managed to catch up in tech and even begin to surpass hammurabi and zara in tech, despite their confucian love fest. I would have pretty easily secured space before hammurabi could finish his own ship or win culture... except he nuked me and raped me with paratroopers. didnt have an confucian cities so i could get him to pleased even with +4 fair trade.

mongolia and khmer were in a war all game and both eventually vassaled to hammurabi.

About the religions: Dosen't matter really which religion you choose: Gandhi is the most peaceful AI in the game and Boudica would have to go through Gandhi, so probably(read:hopefully) she won't. If she has closed borders with Gandhi, you're probably safe. If Gandhi caps to her...hope you get Buddhism. I don't think you can win AP Diplo unless everybody's a full member, and I doubt there are only 2 AI's, so you should go CS before theology, assuming you go theology.

Settled in place. Starting techs give us all the food in our capital's BFC, so I went mining-BW-Pottery for early chops and commerce. Settled the floodplains for great cottage site and solid block against Gandhi, then finished the block with the cow/rice/copper city.

Boudica decided to get a little frisky:



Basically ensuring I would be safe until I met the other continent. Gandhi is hindu, Boudica buddhist, not exactly sure if I should adopt a religion. Probably not, with all the hate going around.

Tech picture at 1 AD:



Land:



None of the cities are really stellar, but with the wars on this continent going on, I should be able to get to some sort of tech lead to seize the continent. Then it's just picking a VC. Putting up a solid 60 bpt, which has given me some good tech early on.

Pretty standard REX and tech plays though.

After watching first 2 videos i think this is good map for elepult rush...will probably try it on immortal anyway.

Continued to peacefully tech on while Gandhi and Boudica hate each other. I think I counted 3 wars up until now. Anyways, them teching really slow really hurt my tech pace, and with the other continent having only 1-2 religions, it caused them to get lib.



I was actually done with education, but they got lib 1-2 turns after that. Oh well, I'm heading off to janisarries and cannons to take out the continent. Going with caste/guilds/chemistry WS for production. Wars shouldn't be too hard with Gandhi and Boudica being backwards. Then it's just a matter of catching up to the other continent.

I warred alot in the last two so when I saw Gandhi near I was pleased to have a bit of peace. I SIP and then saw those delicious floodplains to the north . Anyway I made a settler fairly quick to settle all that potential cottagy goodness. Turns out that city at 1ad is a total monster with 10 cottages now. Academy there and capital. Only 5 cities but I do get 220 beakers a turn. I built all the marble wonders except Toa which I built 3 times for 500 gold. Gandhi has blocked me so I think I can get 7 maybe 8 cities. Oh yeah nobody has alpha including me.

Continued on to steel for a cannon/janissary war against the continent. The religious group hug on the other continent caused them to be wayy ahead technologically. I was lucky that Hammurabi switched to his own religion, Christianity, to break friendly and all the tech trades.

once about 30 jans/cannon were ready, it was time to DoW:



Gandhi actually had some military due to the fact that he has had to fight for his life the entire game against Boudica. While I tore through Gandhi, the other continent continued to tech and tech. I knew I had to move quickly in order to be able to catch up to them.

I completely take out Gandhi for a lot of new land.



Up next is Boudica. I take her capital and the city she took from Gandhi and cap her. I really need to get going on tech, and need to make a desperate attempt at the internet for tech catch-up.





Straight beeline for the internet does not work. Hammurabi is really running away and gets the internet along with the space elevator and all the MM wonders. If I do not do something, he will certainly win space. Thankfully, him dropping out of confucianism allows me to make a deal with Sury/Zara.





This REALLY slows him down, and I DoW as well in hope of a diplo win. I would have gotten it too, but Zara captured the UN city and Sury and Zara are at +15 diplo, so no UN. Zara/Sury took out a lot of Hammurabi's production, allowing me to wealth-research all the SS techs and take off:







For a very tight Space win. Those war bribes were the decisive element to this game, preventing any further tech trades and slowing down his tech and production of SS parts.

K/D/R:









For a cruddy score for a late win. That map was fairly challenging due to the religious situation. Also, our land is not stellar by any means and the other continent has a lot of AIs that start auto-pleased with each other and are threatening to win the game.

Honestly, that was one of the better games I have played. I made some key decisions that I believe won me the game.

Just started Apollo, cant be bothered to finish. I got 7 cities and didnt do much till 1500 when i had a 2 turn war with gandhi. Infantry and cannon vs his rubbish. He and Boudica teched v badly and I did a 48 turn golden age. Got 10 cities. Thx to host. The only fun part was pulling AI strings to war and not war etc. Maybe a pangea next time????