Nobles' Club CXXVIII: Mehmed II of the Ottomans

dalamb

dalamb

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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 Mehmed II of the Ottomans, whom we last played in NC CV, which is also the most recent time we played the Ottomans. They start with Agriculture and The Wheel, which are the prerequisites for Pottery (and thus cheap granaries).

  • Traits: Mehmed is Expansive and Organized. Expansive gives us +2 health per city, double production on Granaries and Harbors, and--perhaps most importantly in the early game--25% faster Worker production. Keep in mind that the Worker production discount only applies to hammers, not food. Organized cuts civic upkeep costs in half and gives us half-priced Lighthouses, Factories, and Courthouses.
  • The UB: The Hammam, an Aqueduct with +2 Happiness. More smiley faces is never a bad thing, particularly if good resources aren't available.

  • The UU: The Janissary, a Musketman with a 25% bonus against melee, archery, and mounted units. A Gunpowder beeline means you could get to see these guys in their element, and they rule the field before other gunpowder units arrive.
And the start:

Spoiler map details :
Medium and small, normal continents, islands, islands mixed in; rest standard.
Spoiler edits :
Ensured the AIs had strategic resources. Extended a couple of nearby rivers slightly. Turned 1NW and 1NW1N to from ocean to land.
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 of 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, 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 128 Mehmed 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 standard 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

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Well howdy again, I'm making this my first game at Prince difficulty, so I'll be sure to post for advice some at the recommended spots. I'm thinking SIP and starting with a worker while researching like Pomthom. Once the worker is done I'll kick out a couple boats and then start expanding. What do you think of after BW chopping Stonehenge? Is it feasible? My thoughts was it would then enable some REXing
 
Yeah, I think you can actually put off Fishing here: AH first, because wet rice and brown cows should do the job for the time being, then Mining and maybe Fishing after that. One nice thing about Ottomans is that they start with The Wheel, so there's really no reason not to go worker first, as your peons will have something to do.

This map type with this start really wants the Great Lighthouse.
 
Both riverside rice and riverside plains cows are better tiles than clams. You could go fishing or delay it indefinitely and do well either way. Fishing makes sense if you want to go the GLighthouse route.
 
Well I'm to 850BC.

Spoiler :
I'm at 4 cities with the GLH and looking to add several more soon but that jungle is choking me to the north and Saladin to the east so I'm thinking build a galley and start on the islands. For the tech path I'm about to finish alphabet and I'm thinking of going to the top to of the tree for trade bait. Also thinking getting the colossus would be nice.
 
Mehmed is one of the best leaders for Horse Archering.

Fast granaries. Fast courthouses (and lighthouses in this case). Strong econ trait. Even the UB is useful for all of the whip unhappiness. Really hope there's horse nearby.
 
Immortal normal. 1280bc.
Spoiler :
SIP.Got up to 3 cities: capital, north east pigs, eastern FP gold . Just whipped settler for southern sheep. Sally to the east got Hinduism, Nappy is somewhere north, probably with barb infested jungle in between. Haven't met anyone else.

Bad luck: lost hilltop warrior to barb warrior then lost worker chopping just behind.
Good luck; getting Glight in 1400bc.

SH went 3000bc, gwall 2500, Oracle 1700, ToA 1500 so there's some wonderhogs around.
Just got writing. I'm debating if I should go for MC. It looks like we've got a few islands to the west and barb galleys can be a pita. Colossus would be a bonus but Oracle didn't produce Confu so it either went for MC or monarchy I'd reckon.


 
Spoiler :
Emperor, normal, 1930ad space race, no pics :(
A very short writeup, from start to finish:
Spoiler :
Started with axe rushing mehmed with ~15 axes. Pillaged both copper & horses in the first few turns of the war. Only his third city was on a hill so it was quite an easy war. Meanwhile, teched to masonry & fishing etc and built the GLH by chopping around the capital. Had I not gotten the GLH the game might of been completely different, GLH is just so broken.

Then spammed like 15 cities on the small islands and blocked the french in the north. Delayed corporation as long as possible and went lazy-mode through the rest of the game. Farms, watermills and workshops everywhere but the capital & floodplains site next to capital. Pushed around 2500 beakers with 80% research in the end. If you can get the GLH on this map, it is pretty much impossible to lose.


 
Spoiler :

This one is way too easy, I managed to get all the good land (settled first two cities to block, far north and a bit closer east), farmed scientists, got Engineering and Gunpowder and crushed the continent. There are plenty happiness resources too (gold, ivory, spices, dyes) and both copper and iron are obtainable.

At some point, Saladin started plotting (at pleased) on me, he declared too late though, and forced my hand. :)


Zavior, did you rush yourself?
 
Around 600AD

Spoiler :
Well I'm at 9 cities and boxed in for the moment. I think I can focus for a tech lead in an area against Sally and De Gaul it I try. I'm thinking I should aim for Jan/Trib and take out at least one of them before it gets they get gunpowder. Saladin is closer, but I feel more thretened by De Gaul.
 
Set-up- Used the Monarch file because I could not find a prince one and played on Prince, Normal speed, with huts and events.

Initial thoughts-
Plains hills, two clams, wet corn, and a plains cow - hard to find a reason not to SiP.
Research was standard- Mining, BW
Build- worker, settler

Turn 25 (3000 BC)-

I realize this is early to do a first report, but I looking for advice similar to a shadow game, so do not hold back.

Spoiler :


http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y457/TheMadFiddler1/Mehmed-Turn25copy_zps4203fc4e.jpg

Met Saladin very quickly and he founded Hinduism.
Worker- Farmed the rice, then built the road while waiting for BW. BW revealed the bronze and chopping was going to save me only a turn on the settler vs. mining the bronze so I went for the long term benefits of the mine.
City Placement- thinking of the black X for the second city- grassland pigs, shared plains cow, dry corn, and multiple flood plains should make for a good worker/settler city [for REX] or whipped military [for a Rush] which can then become a commerce or great person city.
Research- AH, Pottery, then need to decide whether to try and get the lighthouse, or the more standard writing [this is most likely so I can get a look at Saladin’s lands and decide if I should eliminate him now].
 
TheMadFiddler said:
Set-up- Used the Monarch file because I could not find a prince one and played on Prince, Normal speed, with huts and events.
Click to expand...
Prince has the same handicaps as Noble so you should have used that one, no big deal but the AIs will start with Archery.
 
MadFiddler: comment unspoiled because it's good advice anyway, but you don't want to build a Settler in a size 1 city most of the time. Generally, it's a good idea to let the city grow to use some of its best tiles (I'd put Istanbul at size 3 on this map), building Warriors all the while, and then start the Settler. At the very least, you've got BW and trees, so your worker should be chopping to accelerate getting the Settler out. But the spot you mapped out will make a good city.
 
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