[Sword of Islam]: Mamluk Domination

[rrosen]

Well, with the provision of the absence period I'd like to join. First succession game for be, but I'll try not to mess up things.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

MessageMan, if you can't play please let us know. Jusos can probably play first.

 

[Jusos2108]

Okey, I'll play today, unless somebody posts differently in a hour or so. Beware that I'll most likely raze Acre, because I and MessageMan are in favor of it. Again post, if you disagree.

 

[Jusos2108]

Turn 0 I queque a Great Galley to protect our coast. Trade around for cash.

Turn 1 Siege has been laid on Acre. Reinforcements collected from the around the empire.

Turn 2 Levon declares war on us.



Turn 3 Georgia collapses and we lose the good deals we had with them. We also spot the first Mongols.



Turn 4 We capture Sur by flanking the more heavily defended Acre. I don't massacre, because christianity lures in the juicy corps.



Turn 5 Mongols attack from northeast. Couple of them are slayed.



Turn 6 Mongols have taken over Syria.



Turn 7 Acre's defences are down and we pour on it. With luck they survive, for now that is. A new GG is born in Cairo, I decide to settle it there.



Turn 8 We research Mechanical Engineering. Cairo starts the Al-Jaziri Workshop. I choose Blast Furnace next, so that we can build more Toassins. We can also use Al-Jaziri to speed it up.

Acre is razed. We spawn a Great Merchant, after a quick thought I decide to spark a Golden Age, so that we can get the Toassins faster. We should also change civics. I switch to Empire, Religious Law and Agrarianism. They'll pay the temporary angry faces back really quickly.



Turn 9 We capture Damascus.



Turn 10 Nothing happens.

Turn 11 We meet the Seljuks, who have surprisingly survived the Mongol onslaught, and I trade world map (see 2nd pic minimap) from them.

 

[Jusos2108]

Notes and to do list:
-We should get Civil Service after Blast Furnace
-Take Aqaba, a trebutchet and a axeman will meet in Al-Quds on the following turn, there is also one merc Horse Archer that should be thrown against the walls.
-I think we should raze Antioch, Tortosa and Homs. Remember that we must also fail one UHV condition and the control Levant would be the one, if we found this amazing production center:

Spoiler :

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Maybe we should get Madinah and Mecca and then Hamah, but no more cities for now (because Mansa Musa is going to strike and our economy is going to tank.) In fact, I usually trade for Civil Service from a friendly Sunni civ but too bad the Abbasids are dead.

Actually, the 5 Portuguese ship UHV criteria is a distraction from our domination plan, and I would have gone for the Levant criteria. The openendedness of the ship criteria is good but we don't really have a good ship production city on the Red Sea side except Aqaba (Yemen should be conquered last). DON'T found Raithu (we have too many cities as is).

Then the only other cities we really need are Constantinople and Angora, just steal them from the Ottomans. Did we remember to set espionage 100% to the Byzantines?

 

[Jusos2108]

We can still control Northern Syria by founding a city somewhere around 2NW from Edessa, so Hamah keeps that option open too. Only thing a dislike about the Portuguese ship UHV is that we can't really control it, if for instance they DoWn on us.

I have to admit that I forgot.

BTW, I have feeling that Mansa is less likely to strike, if we are waging several wars during the time period. At least I have noticed that he usually comes after the crusaders has been finished off and my empire is at peace. Worth a try at least..

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Actually the Portuguese almost never DOW on anybody except Oman and Bahmani, and all they do is capture rebel cities in Yemen and Suqutra.

Has anybody looked at the code about how the Mansa Musa event actually strikes?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I see you started a granary in Jerusalem. I think that that's a good idea in generic RFC and for big cities like Baghdad, Constantinople and Cairo, but because embryodead has made certain cities productive but without large populations (e.g. Madinah, Jerusalem, Damascus), by the time you finish building the granary you probably won't have much food extra for population growth. I usually build a blacksmith first in Jerusalem, so that other buildings are easier, and build a granary for plague (i.e. so that it can grow back quicker).

We need to start converting the cottages around Cairo to farms if we're to succeed the UHV about making Cairo the most populous city.

 

[rrosen]

MessageMan up next, right? Did you attach a savegame? I agree about the UHV, the 5 ships seems by far the easiest not to trigger by accident.

 

[Jusos2108]

I see you started a granary in Jerusalem. I think that that's a good idea in generic RFC and for big cities like Baghdad, Constantinople and Cairo, but because embryodead has made certain cities productive but without large populations (e.g. Madinah, Jerusalem, Damascus), by the time you finish building the granary you probably won't have much food extra for population growth. I usually build a blacksmith first in Jerusalem, so that other buildings are easier, and build a granary for plague (i.e. so that it can grow back quicker).

We need to start converting the cottages around Cairo to farms if we're to succeed the UHV about making Cairo the most populous city.

Actually you started the granary. I thought about changing it to a blacksmith, since that's what I always build first.

There are couple workers in southern Egypt that are building a destructed plantation back on, so they can move on to Cairo next. The refugees from Acre luckily arrived at Cairo to give us one pop.

MessageMan up next, right? Did you attach a savegame? I agree about the UHV, the 5 ships seems by far the easiest not to trigger by accident.

Let's take the first two UHVs then. And here is the save.

 

[MessageMan]

Can we get Knights Hospitaller even though we're Sunni? Tripoli can match Hamah's production with it.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Actually you started the granary. I thought about changing it to a blacksmith, since that's what I always build first.

I usually click the first thing the computer suggests (just to click the screen away). When it comes out of rebellion, I go into the city screen to adjust various things like specialists and tiles worked, and then I choose the build.

In late domination game I've just been building culture on newly conquered cities (because if I don't win by a certain number of turns, I'll probably just collapse).

Sorry if I gave you the impression that Jerusalem actually needs a granary.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Can we get Knights Hospitaller even though we're Sunni? Tripoli can match Hamah's production with it.

No, but we can sure get the Italian corps to come.

Agrarianism might not be the best civic for the 1st UHV...

 

[MessageMan]

Turn 0

Jerusalem builds the Granary in 3 turns so I'll switch to blacksmith afterwards.

Turn 1

Frankish galley pillages Ghazza's fishing boat. Al-Jus destroys galley.


Turn 2

Barbarians (Mongols?) take Edessa. Seljuks collapse. Rum loses Byzantium and is destroyed.

Turn 3

Kingdom of Acre collapses. Mongols attack Damascus but are beaten off.

Al-Minya completes Krak de Chevaliers.

Spoiler :

Turn 4

Cairo completes Al-Jazari's Workshop. +1814 to Blast Furnace.

Spoiler :

Homs is razed.

Spoiler :

Turn 5

Bedouin Camel attacks lone Marksman and loses. Venetian Merchants come to Sur. Sunni Missionary fails to spread Islam to Sur.

We capture Al-Aqabah.

Spoiler :

Turn 6

We raze Tartus.

Spoiler :

Turn 7

Genoan Merchants come to Ghazza. Troops move up to Antioch.

Turn 8

Siege of Antioch begins. Settler for Hamah started in Domyat.

We meet Oman and open borders.

Spoiler :

I pay to replace burned down Blacksmith in Domyat.

Spoiler :

Turn 9

Great Merchant born in Domyat. I like to save them for Golden Ages, but if somebody wants to bulb Economics that's fine. I'll put him in Cairo in the meantime.

5 Mongols spawn in between Damascus and Sur. Sur only has one Marksman and can't draft. Hopefully they attack Damascus.

Spoiler :

Turn 10

It didn't turn out too badly. 3 Mongols take out the Marksman, Horseman, and Axemen I sent up to Antioch. Then the Cilicians take out the two Trebs. 1 Mongol attacks Damascus and is defeated, the other razes the road to the Sheep. There's a Treb in Aqabah I'll send up north.

Turn 11

Horse Archer around Damascus disappears. Mongols then take Antioch. I guess that's where he went to.

Armenia destroys Alexandria's fishing boat. Hashishiyya expands into Al-Aqabah.

 

[MessageMan]

Perhaps I should've waited till the Toassin and the Horse Archer had healed before setting out for Antioch. But if Antioch had a Castle then it would have taken forever to lower the defenses so I thought I would send them up in advance. Did I make the right move?

 

[AnotherPacifist]

I would have waited before attacking Antioch because the Mongols are still in full bloom. We're stretched too thin as is, and until we can build those super lancers called Toassin Mamluks, we're sitting ducks for all kinds of barbs that come from the desert.

Damascus is a tricky city to defend. You don't want units to venture out too far into the desert because you can't build roads in desert and they can't get back to the city quickly. I usually have at least 1 missile cavalry, 1 maceman or axeman, 1 lancer and 2 marksmen there--the 1st takes care of any bedouin camels, the 2nd ventures out to protect the iron from the city, the 3rd takes care of the barb axemen and goes back to the iron, and the marksmen are the failsafe.

We really need to gear up to capture Constantinople--if Rum has lost it, it means the Ottomans will surely have a much easier time getting it when they spawn soon.

 

[Jusos2108]

Agrarianism might not be the best civic for the 1st UHV...

The first UHV is really quite easy, so one unhealthy face doesn't make anymore difficult. Actually in my opinion agrarianism fits the first uhv brilliantly.

Remember that the Ottomans won't spawn if Rum is in good shape. However, we can still take Constantinople whenever we want. Also note that the Byzantines won't respawn after the Ottomans have spawned.

 

[rrosen]

I will play when I come how from work this afternoon. How do these objectives sound?
1: Defend the current conquests, but no more conquering in the Levant.
2: Build up the economic base.
3: Prepare an invasion fleet for Constantinople.

 

[Jusos2108]

Sounds good, but make sure to raze Antioch and found Hamah. Mongols have Antioch now, so it will be easy to take. Also I think that we can get to Constantinople by land, so I would concentrate on building Toassins as soon as we can.