Nobles' Club CVI Mansa Musa of the Mali

Noble Zarkon

Noble Zarkon

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The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Mansa Musa of Mali, whom we last played in NC XLVII. The Mali start with The Wheel and Mining.


  • Traits: Mansa is Financial and Spiritual. FIN means +1 on tiles with 2 , which gives a big boost to your economy when you work cottaged tiles (especially those on a riverside) or seafood tiles. SPI means temples are cheaper; also, changing civics avoids anarchy, which means diplomacy can be easier.
  • The UB: The Mint. a Forge that also gives +10% . Note: not ; in a commerce city you need to build gold-multiplying buildings such as markets and banks, and run the slider to get positive , to get a benefit.
  • The UU: the Skirmisher: an Archer with 4 instead of 3, and 1-2 first strikes instead of 1.
And the start:


Spoiler map details :
Not too Big or Small (Variant of Big and Small from K-Mod

Spoiler edits :
Swapped a couple of resources, swapped our start with one of the AIs. I checked that all AIs had strategic resources nearby and they did.

Spoiler Civ details :
Chose the Civs to avoid anyone who was in the last 5 Nobles' Club games or the the last time we played as Mansa.


Finally, a cut and paste of our standard doctrine:
There are no hard and fast rules here: fun and learning are our primary goals, but we do suggest that you update your progress at various points in the game, using the Spoiler feature of the boards. You can post as often as you like; here's one suggestion:
  • 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, where you're thinking of putting cities, 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 didn't, 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)
This is just a guideline. If you're trying to improve your game, then posting more frequent updates, in as much detail as you can manage, is the best way to get suggestions from other players. If you come to what seems like a major decision and you want some advice, post an update, regardless of what game-year it is.

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 and TMIT, who really made this series a great one, r_rolo1, mapmaker extraordinaire, for his maps in the early days of the series, to dalamb for the opportunity to create this map and all of you for playing.
Click to expand...

The WB-saves are 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, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC number Leader Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :
In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Noble. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

For players on Monarch or above, you should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:
Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :
  1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
  2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
  3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
  4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
  5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
  6. Exit the worldbuilder.
  7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.

Spoiler huts and events :
Note: The 'No Huts' saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with 'Huts' in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.
 

Attachments

  • NC 106 Mansa.zip
    196.9 KB · Views: 368
Settling on wine with Financial Mansa give you 3 commerce in your city tile, for those who don't know (2 for settling on wine, 3 for being Financial). It looks like a strong play here.

Not a great commerce capital, but a good production one. Could've gone for some more food, but plains cow is a powerful tile with the wet corn backing it up.

Will play tonight or tomorrow!
 
The Oz-Man said:
Not a great commerce capital, but a good production one. Could've gone for some more food, but plains cow is a powerful tile with the wet corn backing it up.
Click to expand...

I did think about adding another food source -
Spoiler :
will be interested to see what people think once they have explored a bit!
 
Wow, this starting pos is really interesting! :)
I'm in the middle of moving right now, so I won't have time to play this untill sometime next week, but it looks good.

About the idea to settle on the wine... I don't know.
I kind of like settling on the PH as well. 1 extra hammer or 2 extra commerce, I think I would go with the hammer.
There are alot of plains hills around, and the available food doesn't let us work all of them easily, so we have nothing to gain by moving away from the current PH.

We can also get alot of commerce by working all those furs, and we get the 3 commerce from those wine tiles without settling there too.

I would just farm those wines for 2f 1h 3commerce, thats like a light version of gems. :)
 
An interesting start to say the least. Having Furs around means Hunting is a desireable tech, so getting Skirmishers seems like it goes well with this start. Of course, a super aggressive neighbor could be just around the corner.

I would be Warrior 1 SE to scout the river tiles before making a settling decision, but settling on the Wine seems to be best, as that makes this capital a nice production city. Getting Pottery early and settling river cities will be a good idea for this leader.
 
Well, just looking, the smart move would be to walk the warrior over to the plains hill 1SE and see what all that (presumably) flood plain is all about. Then I'd consider settling on said plains hill if the proposed BFC looked good, with the second city placed to take advantage of the corn and furs.

But thats just my $.02 without actually opening the save.
 
@NobleZarkon: Thanks for putting this map together! Given people's opinions in the recent poll, avoiding adding the extra food was likely the right choice.

I agree with capnvonbaron about warrior 1SE. My instincts say settle on the wine next to the river (I keep thinking about levees in a few hundred turns instead of :hammers: right now :blush:) but SIP is probably best (depending on what the warrior finds).
 
lol buddy, just quote him and you see the BBcode ;)



[ Spoiler=it works like this]
there you go
[ /spoiler]

Spoiler it works like this :

there you go
 
I like it! I'm gonna play it!

I'm going to be looking for lots of advice too guys. I'm still not very good at noble :undecide:
 
I am going to give this one a shot. I have played 2 games on settler and then I played the Pacal Nobles' Club to a diplomacy victory at Noble. I am looking forward to getting input from the community to become a better player.
My first thought on settling was to move one south. I think I will take other advice listed here and move the warrior one SE and then decide what to do.
 
omg what a juicy territory... i will give this a go on deity for the first time :) keep your fingers crossed for me! ;)
 
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