Sons of Monarchy VIII: Tokugawa of Japan

Fractal Map

zoom all the way in, open worldbuilder, and add the appropriate techs to the barbarian civilization. This means archery at monarch or higher, hunting at emperor or higher, agriculture at immortal or deity, and the wheel at deity.

It's 1525 AD, and I've got Cavalry out the wazoo. I'm at war with--surprise!--Shaka and his American vassal. I was in the process of wiping Carthage off the map when Hannibal peacevassaled to Shaka because he's a jerk. Being able to settle nearly a dozen cities peacefully of course helps, as did grabbing the Pyramids, Great Library, Mausoleum, and Taj. I've got 10 turns left in the last of my three Golden Ages, but when Communism drops in a few turns and I pick up a more conventional GS from Kyoto, the next GA will begin.

Willem and Cyrus have Rep. Parts, which is troubling, but I think with pure unit spam augmented by Airships I should be able to take care of bidness.

Settled one SW without even moving the warrior onto the hill to see if that's a good move than SIP. Empty water tiles vs. couple extra riversides is a no-brainer move for me. Met Hanni and Lincoln early on but made no contact with others for a long time. I aggressively settled Jungle to keep the triple gems out of Hanni's hands and to shut him in between me, Lincoln and the ocean.

This did give me problems with barbs though as I had a tonne of backfill to the East/South East that was also wide open. Had to emergency upgrade a warrior to axe to maintain my foothold there. Other than that, it was a smooth game militarily.

Lincoln founded Buddhism and spammed me with missionaries. I didn't convert as the largest bloc was Hindu. Cyrus also built the AP in that religion. It finally spread to a coastal city in 860 AD. Having converted to keep the Hindu bloc peaceful, I focused on taking Hanni down.

I declared on Hanni with Elephants and Catapults in 960 AD. He had Longbows but I was almost to Engineering and once Trebs joined the party, it was all over and he capitulated in 1050 AD. Although my position was now secure, my economy struggled for some reason. (I am not sure if Toku's at fault here as I didn't do anything too drastic and had two very nicely cottaged sites)

For the next few turns, it was all about getting economy healthy again. Shaka was kept pacified by giving into his demands. I worked my way to Liberalism, planning on Libbing Steel. Until I remembered we have Willem on the map. Dude loves Free Religion and often makes a run at Lib. I put all my EPs onto him and to my horror found he was three turns away from Lib. I was four turns away, so cities were starved to run scientists and I finally libbed Replacable parts in 1370 AD. Would have preferred Steel, but I will take what I can get.

1460 AD, I won the AP election and put it to good cheese use. Shaka went after Lincoln who would have had no chance and would have capped had the war gone on for any length. I immediately called for a stop of war against Shaka and the dumb AI thinks I am saving it, so Shaka votes yes to stop and Lincoln no. Since I ran the show, the war halted two turns after it started in 1530 AD with no losses to Lincoln.

That is, until I rode into town on Cuirs in 1560 AD. He bribed Wang Kon into the war. I in turn bribed Shaka onto Wang. Lincoln lost cities quickly and Capitulated in 1605 AD. His cities were given back as he had Sistine and I didn't want to deal with the culture unhappiness.

I was now just a few votes short of winning AP. Willem was voting Cyrus instead of me and while I could spam more farms and use Biology to beat that, where's the fun in that? Declared on him in 1650 AD, capped him in 1670 and won an AP diplo victory in 1680. Shaka was still at war with Wang and Cyrus didn't do a whole lot this game except spam wonders.

SIP and teched Agr/Hunt/Min/Bw/Pot/Iw/Wrt/Alpha/Trade AH/Myst/Med/Arch then researched Prst/Monarchy>towards CS/Machinery.

Did a weird 4 city build and had 14 pop Beaur capital Pumping out Samurai in 3 turns/Epic. Had 18 cities before 1000AD. Probably won't finish lol but the game is won.

SIP and went AG/BW/myst/wheel/poly/priest.
Built SH(just love that free border pop) and Oracle (took col)
Settled 2nd city by gold and fish but on the outer rim so I could take sugar and Horses in same city. Settled 3rd down by double gold, rice and food plains.
My 4th city blocked of Hannibal and took pig/double gem and rice.
I was planning on a rather peaceful game as there were plenty of sites. But
a barb city poped up to the sw with corn/cows/gems. And even worse Shaka comes out of nowhere and takes it
I had already decided I wanted that city as it is really good. So I built some axes and dowed Shaka(he was going to hate me anyway). Took the city but found out he isn't even close. So I took masonry and settled for peace. Now that I had those 10 axes just sitting there I decided Hannibal was feeling too comfortable and I disliked him having a hill city right next to me. Dowed him and lost some axes but took the city.
Now my empire was trying to balance military production/expansion/courthouses and teching towards construction. So while I marched on his ivory city just west of my 4th city, I also built a city north of my capital by the iron, ivory and took corn from capital. Got some courthouses out as my economy was suffering even with 3 gem mines and 3 gold mines, courthouses and currency. Took his ivory city west(even though he has more) and finally took Carthage. At this time my army need some rest as it was a hard fight. Hannibal with 3 cities is now forever crippled anyway even though he will culture pressure me.Didn't get feu so no capping but he did share Calendar with me.
As always Willem is teching fast and Shaka is spamming cites like never before. I am thinking of whipping out some cats and whipe Hannibal completely of the face of the earth or march towards America. But probably Hannibal as he is bound to peace vassal to someone I won't like. But It a slow game for me techwise as I am running no specialist. No feu or machinery yet

Cities 2-4 were at the following respective sites:

• Cow/triple Gems
• Corn/Banana
• Pig/Rice (and Iron)

This has blocked Hannibal off and secured me space to settle 12 cities easily, although spawn-busting it was surprisingly difficult. I've got 11 cities now, cottages on the river sites and gunning for food/hammers everywhere else.

Tech-path was, I think, Ag->Hunting->BW->IW->Pot->Writing->Alphabet->Maths->Currency, picking up backfill around Writing/Alphabet (wasn't first to Alpha with the IW detour, funnily enough). IW was beelined so that I could get some use out of those blocking sites. I'd normally settle cities that are good now rather than will be good later, but I didn't want to lose them to Hannibal and they're useless without clearing the jungle.

The world has separated into Buddhist/Hindu blocks. Shaka & Cyrus are Hindu, everyone else is Buddhist.

I was first to CoL, bulbed Philosophy with my second GS and won the Music race for the free GA. I'm building the MoM in the Pig/Rice blocker city, hoping the culture will stop Hanni from stealing that Iron off me. Once that's in I'll use the free GA for civic swaps and to starve out some GSs. Building any wonders I've got multipliers for, for the failgold. So SoZ, Showaddywaddy, Chicken Pizza, Mids, etc.

Despite the REX I've maintained a tech lead by securing myself such a backfill, have netted a load of resources and several duplicates. This has made diplo easy as I've been able to gift lots. What have I just done with a tech lead and favourable diplo? War bribes! I've just bribed WK on Cyrus, Shaka on Willem and Hannibal on Lincoln; and people still like me!

While they all learn to hate each other I'll just keep teching away, then breakout with either good old Cuirs.. or being that this is Toku, find a nice GT site (Corn/Banana for most food and not a lot else going for it?) and rip it up with drafted rifles + seige du jour.

Is only one way to win imo
Weird map made it an easy game.
After taking peace with Hannibal I expanded some more south of capitol and more or less waited until 10 turns expired. Feu was coming up for most civs and I did not want him and his 3 cities vassaling to someone. Most frustratingly his borders poped the exakt same tun I was going to attack so there went the element of surprise.
But I brought a few cats along so he folder pretty fast. At this point I was just a little bit behind in tech but I was way ahead in pts and land and cities. I could had gone for Lincoln but he had feu and my economy wasn't that great so I just put my stack in a border town and peacfully grew my empire. Shaka hated me but he also hated Lincoln so he never got open borders and couldn't do anything
Built TGL, Colossus and went to almost 15 cities. Everyone else had just about the same land mass and could not get more than 7-9 cities. Unfortunately not a single war ocorred which made go for lib right away. Since I got into the early war I got lib late, at 1180. But it was worth it. Then Willem, pissed for me taking lib maybe, makes a demand which I reject. Why?
At that very moment I was pumping out curs and of course he declares.
Problem is by the time he arrives I have 15 curs waiting for him and he is crushed. He takes peace and gives me gold. Together with that and the GM I got from eco I upgrade all my curs to cavs and declares with 30 cavs around 1380. He fold like a deck of cards with no rifling. I waste no time and go for Shaka. He has grenadiers but I just wait for his stack to arrive and crush it. He folds after losing his 1st city.
Now the trucky part. Willem and Cyrus both had almost tech parity but did I bother with cannons? NO
Just sheer numbers would do. By now I had over 50 cavs and even if Willem had a few hill cities he had no way to resist. Around 1550 Willem came crawling to make me cease with the merciless slaughter. Next up was Cyrus and he had no choice to surrender. Wang Kong had a huge army, something like 40 units but at that points it wouldn't matter one bit. He got totally crushed and once he capped it was all over.
Was very easy only having to worry about one neighbour after Hannibal got wiped out. Was very fun until you realised it was all over.

Hmmm nice map. I settled 5, have space behind to settle more (I've earmarked 3 spots), the barbs are hogging a spot down there at the moment. Cities were quite close together. 3-gem spot is going to be awesome soon, and the gold/fish/horses city is a nice production city even at size 6.
Went for elepult as initially planned. Started the war in around 150BC with 4 cats and 5 axes. Result = 2 razed cities (1 of which I will resettle), 2 captured, and capturing another soon, after which I will take peace and a load of techs from Hannibal and recover the economy/settle those backfill cities. Quite impressed with how it's gone really.

I have currency and will have literature in 3 or 4 turns and I can get going on the GLib. One GS so far, academy in capital. At the far end of the landmass they are teching faster and have lots of wonders; not so at this end. I'm on about 0g at 0% on the slider though... the conquest gold is keeping me going. Going to be interesting to see if I can keep this going. Will stick with the original plan for now of aiming to draft rifles. Immortal is hard but I feel this is an alright start.

I've got the GT in the corn/cow/nanners spot, Lib down to 1 turn and am a few turns off Gunpowder. I'll Lib Nationalism or Rep. Parts if I need to (am keeping an eye on Lincoln, Willem and WK as they have Philosophy and can tech Education; so I've got some time, but not much) but would of course prefer Rifling.

The bribes last night may well have backfired - Shaka has vassaled Willem and picked up Cyrus as a peace-vassal. He's now declared on Lincoln, who has bribed WK in.

Was Shaka not willing to war Wang Kon? I usually try to bribe aggressive guys against protective to make the war as much a stalemate as possible.

I think so; I could've bribed him on anyone and in hindsight that would've been a much better idea than setting him on the snivelling Dutchman. I don't think I had as much choice in others' targets however and considering I wanted everyone to be at war with someone else, that's how it landed. Live and learn, I guess!

Further brief update: Shaka declared on Lincoln, who bribed WK in on the action. Lincoln folded faster than Superman on laundry and despite losing Pyongyang, WK held on and bought peace. Shaka/Willem/Cyrus/Lincoln have since re-declared and taken Namp'o but WK still isn't going down. Meanwhile I've vassalled Hannibal and am gritting my teeth before declaring on Shaka and charging into America.

Well, I have learnt the hard way that Shaka with tech parity and vassals is not the easy way

Well, I think I lost this one. I took Carthage out with a middle ages war using Samurai, then teched to rifles and cannon and DOW on Shaka + Lincoln.

War with Shaka was going well, but capping him took too long. He has SO MANY units. The problem is, he wouldn't cap, and he got Persia to DOW on me and roll in with a stack of infantry and cavalry against my rifle/cannon military.

This was a tough one for me, Toku is a very weak leader and I am a low end monarch player. Still, I had fun and I am going to try a previous SOM game- possibly the first one (easier leader ).

My biggest struggle is with picking bad trading partner.s Early on I adopted Hinduism thinking I could trade with Carthage. What happened was Hannibal and everyone else hated me and I had an uphill slog against AIs with near tech-parity. In the end, I had no friends and not enough of an advantage to win it.

You settle aggressively west; you then have plenty of land east, more than any AI. Land = power.

But yeah, Shaka is a pain to take head-on...

Didn't get the great library. I really need to get better with my economy at Immortal level.

Took peace with Hannibal. Re-declared later. He has 1 city left. I still have eleputs & axes and he has crossbows and longbows, I don't care though, strength of numbers will win and I don't mind the unexperienced ones dying off. He vassaled to Shaka and I thought that was gg, but then I realised he hates the Americans but isn't at war with him. So, his troops cannot reach my territory!

Just got to CS, revolted to Bearuo and HR. It's 1000AD and no education, seriously, this is rubbish. Traded it for machinery. Still behind on techs, but not terribly, feud and calendar are the only important things missing. Cottage-mania and my 14-15 cities will take off soon, hopefully. Bulbed philosophy with my 2nd GS, someone else founded Taoism ages ago though.

Long term I don't know what to do. Drafting rifles doesn't seem feasible in a reasonable timeframe. Maybe drafting infantry. Everyone is at war with someone else at the moment, except for the Americans, who are too weedy to fight anyone. I still haven't met the last civ though, but I know who they are from other spoilers.

Had to selftech AH and Iron Working because Alpha was late.
Teched Maths whilst waiting for Alpha, too.
Moving Capital to Tokyo, Will try to turn Kyoto in production center for now, GP farm later.
Got 1 scientist early, could've bulbed maths or keep him, but chose to make an academy in Tokyo instead for long term benefit.
Hannibal doesn't like me and is plotting, but he's already pissed off at his heathen neighbours, so I'm crossing fingers he's going after lincoln.
Currently Tech leader, expansion towards 6/7cities by 0AD comfortably on schedule.
No need for Monarchy just yet, but maybe soon so that I can grow the capital through.
About to 3 pop whip a settler and overflow into the statue of Zeus, building up the Fail Gold. Not sure I actually want it built, it depends what are my plans for immediate future.

Made one HUGE mistake, not settling Satsume 1W. Even though I couldn't see the iron at the time of settling, there was NO reason to not settle one tile closer to the AI and grabbing rice.

Somehow going for the obvious cataphant rush didn't really appeal to me this game. I did it last game, so I wanted to do something else this time around.

I'm not so sure what should be my midgame plan now though.

Questions/plans:

Since noone has Math, is it maybe a decent idea to go for the Hanging Gardens? I'm about to whip a Settler, and can have Stone hooked up in something like six turns I think. Would it at this stage still be usefull to try and get a GE through Nat EPIC+Gardens+Forge(IF i can trade metalcasting for currency). Since the AI is teching slowly I MIGHT be able to rushbuild the great library with him. Not sure if this is realistic.

Alternatively, I could try to run for CS and try to get something going with the Samurais, but I can get to 7 cities by taking the barb down below, and just tech out to Cuirs (boring) relatively fast I would say...

https://hotfile.com/dl/170459734/37ef52d/SOM_VIII-Tokugawa_BC-0325.CivBeyondSwordSave.html




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You need to decide how you're going to win, and that will shape your midgame. Military? Trebs and samurai could be good if you don't want to go for cuirs. Or hang on until rifles and draft lots of them; as people have mentioned, rifles are better than normal for Toku becuase of his traits. You probably have enough decent land to tech for space if you'd rather do that.

I like the hanging gardens so go for them if you want, though personally I would just go straight to slow-building the great library from here. Your "get a GE" plan sounds too convoluted. Get maths as well though, better chops are good. CS should definately be a priority to adopt bureaucracy, especially as you're using all those hammers to move the palace to a place that will increase your maintenance costs

You could fit another city 3N of Kyoto if you want.