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Game #14 - Mongolia/Kublai Khan
Game #14 - Mongolia/Kublai Khan
In the next ALC game, I'll be playing as Kublai Khan, leader of Mongolia. This thread is to discuss, before the game, how to best exploit that particular leader's characteristics, which is the main feature and purpose of the ALC series. Just so we're clear, I'm playing with the Warlords expansion pack and the difficulty level will be Monarch. The speed is Epic, the map is Fractal. Here's the fact sheet:
Traits: Aggressive (Free Combat I promotion of melee and gunpowder units. Double production speed of Barracks and Drydock.) and Creative (+2 culture per city. Double production speed of Library, Theater, and Coliseum.)
Starting Techs: Hunting and the Wheel
Unique Unit: Keshik (Replaces Horse Archer; Strength: 6, Movement: 2, Cost: 50; Unique Characteristics: Ignores terrain movement costs.)
Unique Building: Ger (Replaces Stable; Cost: 60; Requires: Horseback Riding; Unique Characteristics: New mounted units receive +2 experience points--added to the stable's +2 XPs for a total of +4)
Like Tokugawa, both Mongolians strike me as leaders whose characteristics require warmongering in order to best take advantage of them. Aggressive obviously lends itself to war, what with those cheap barracks and drydocks, and the free Combat I promotion.
Creative, on the other hand, isn't usually thought of as a warmonger's trait; Imperialistic, owned by Kublai's grand-daddy Genghis, seems more apt for us bloodthirsty types. However, Creative allows you to land-grab early on and quickly establish a base for your military empire. You don't have to worry about Stonehenge or monuments; those hammers can go to other things--like barracks and units. And conquered cities will quickly regain most, if not all, of their lost territory; cheap libraries and theatres can help there, as can coliseums if my new subjects object to my rule. Or I could just whip 'em, of course.
The cheap libraries will be welcome in another regard, to help research, since neither of Kublai's traits nor his other characteristics offer any economic advantages. I expect to do a lot of pointy-stick research.
Like Carthage, the Mongols have a Horse Archer-based Unique Unit, the Keshik. While they're not much good for capturing cities, Keshiks do have the ability to quickly ride over all passable terrain as though it's flat land. They strike me--correct me if I'm wrong here--as pillagers par excellence, able to quickly strike into the heart of your enemy's territory, and able to just as quickly get out, using paths where the enemy's counters to mounted units (Spearmen and Pikemen) can't easily follow, such as forests, jungles, and hills. I'll be looking to use the Keshiks in this way, similar to how (ironically) I used Chariots against Kublai in the Mansa Musa game, to pillage his strategic resources and ruin his research so he couldn't bring any decent units to bear against me.
The tough part, as with Carthage, will be getting to the tech that enables the UU. As we saw in the Hannibal game, that's a long, torturous path: Hunting, Archery, Animal Husbandry, and finally Horseback Riding are required to green-light the Keshiks. Mongolia has one advantage, though: the civ starts with Hunting. Even so, I hate to admit it, but in my off-line games as Carthage, I experienced the greatest success by neglecting the UU. I prefer to trade for HBR rather than researching it; it's an expensive distraction and the AI frequently has it before me. With Mongolia, I might simply be looking to trade for it earlier than I would with other civs.
HBR is a higher priority for Mongolia, though, because it enables not only the UU but also the Unique Building, the onomatopaically-appropriate Ger. Mounted units coming out of a city with a cheap barracks and a Ger will have 6 XPs right off the bat--Level 3 (2 promotions) out of the gate. What promotions would be best here? I was thinking that a mix of Flanking I + II, Combat I + II, and a couple of Flanking I/Sentry units would be best, but I am willing to stand corrected. Combat I + Shock might also be good to counter the counters, which are melee units.
As for leveraging the starting techs: Hunting is obvious. Build a Scout first, explore and pop huts before anyone else does. Keep your fingers crossed and hope for a camp resource in the capital's fat cross. As for The Wheel--well, it's nice not to have to research it, and it gives the Workers something to do. Aside from that, should we pursue Agriculture/Animal Husbandry first, or Mining/Bronze Working? Remember Hunting makes AH slightly cheaper.
As for religion and wonders--meh. We'll capture both rather than researching or pursuing them, I suspect. For the most part, anyway, especially early in the game.
Most of Kublai's advantages will peter out over time, so it's going to be important to jump on some of the neighbours early. It will also make sense to prioritize Guilds (for Knights) and especially Military Tradition (for Cavalry) to maximize the benefits of the UB, and to war in each of those eras with mounted units. I find that if you get to those techs early enough, before anyone else, your mounted units are strong enough to do a decent job at city attacking. Given that it's a fractal map, I shall despair if we wind up isolated. I may even restart under those circumstances. But we'll see what we get and I shall do my best to abide by the group consensus.
I gather that Genghis is a favourite leader of several warmongers, but Kublai rarely gets mentioned--which is part of the reason I chose him for my first game as Mongolia. Nonetheless, all you Mongol Hordes should be able to chime in on the best use of the Keshik, the Ger, and the Aggressive trait; it's the Creative trait that adds the interesting wrinkle here. Let me know what you think!