The Immortal Challenge Lineup - Game #32 Mongolia

[Gustavus Rex]

The Immortal Challenge Lineup - Game #32

Welcome to the Immortal Challenge Lineup!

ICL Game #32 - Mongolia
Settings: Tweeked by Nigel Tufnel Raging barbarians is turned ON
Map – Pangea
DLC - All DLC - map packs

Starting location:



Information & rules:

Spoiler :

All games in this series will be set to IMMORTAL difficulty. User civilizations, maps, and opponents will change each game, but the pace will always be set at standard and the starting era will always be ancient. We will try for a variety of starts, and not just having a crazy warmonger as your next door neighbor (although there will be that too). This isn't a competition so there will be no predefined victory conditions. New challenges in the series will be posted every other Wednesday.

Who can play?
Anybody can play. The more the merrier. Even if you normally don't play immortal games you are still welcome to try. The games can become great learning resources for the player trying to improve. Even if you don't finish the game, we are still interested to hear about your experience.

Do's and Don'ts
We are going to be using the honor system. Feel free to restart, reload, play the same game multiple times, but don't use the science overflow exploit. Also please don't edit the game in IGE. If you do chose to cheat, please don't share your results in the comments. Also, please use the spoiler tag if you post a picture, comment about neighboring civs, close by wonders, or locations of ancient ruins.

Also, please tell us about your Build Order, Social Policies, Tech Order, and what type of wonders you went after. I know a lot of this stuff seems pretty mundane to the experienced player, but the details are incredibly useful to people trying to learn.

Future Games in the Series
I want users to submit saves from turn 0. Preferably the person submitting the game has played enough turns to know the map is either difficult, fun, or unique in some enjoyable way. Write a short description as to why it is special and email the save to immortalchallengelineup@gmail.com

Important
If you submit a game for the challenge, you must have the DLC map packs disabled. Not everybody has them and they are honestly kind of useless. Having them disabled will allow more participants.

Links to all recent ICL-games:

Spoiler :

Game #1 - Japan
Game #2 - Poland
Game #3 - Ottomans
Game #4 - Arabia
Game #5 - Brazil
Game #6 - Denmark
Game #7 - Songhai
Game #8 - Sweden
Game #9 - India
Game #10 - Russia
Game #11 - Germany
Game #12 - Aztecs
Game #13 - Egypt
Game #14 - France
Game #15 - Austria
Game #16 - Siam
Game # 17 - Venice
Game # 18 - Iroquois
Game # 19 - Greece
Game # 20 - Persia
Game # 21 - England
Game # 22 - Ethiopia
Game # 23 - Assyria
Game # 24 - The Celts
Game # 25 - America
Game # 26 - China
Game # 27 - Korea
Game # 28 - Spain
Game # 29 - The Zulu
Game # 30 - The Mayans
Game # 31 - Midsummer special

All results gets documented in a spreadsheet by Consentient. To help him with his work, please use this headline tXXX victory-type in your finishing post. Example: t210 DV

Link to ICL Spreadsheet

 

[Gustavus Rex]

t125

Spoiler :

3city honor start went a bit slow due to hordes of barbarians and even though buying the third library I didn't manage to finish NC until the late t90ish...

I just reached chivalry and upgraded my chariot archers to keshiks. I also remembered to build horses. I now have three armies containing 1 horse and 4 keshiks. The plan is to dow Brazil, Arabia and Siam in the next turn and slowly chew through the map. Will continue to build units when I'm on the right side of the unit cap.

Think I'll need a break before the dark age begins.

 

[consentient]

I hope the horses are turned up to 11

 

[sun8119]

Lately I am seeing only tweaked maps on ICL and my advice for tweaked maps would be to mention what exactly has been tweaked (if many changes at least the major ones or in general) so we know. You can put it in a spoiler tag. Seriously it would be nice to see non standard changes. For some reason tweaked maps are kinda discouraging to play unless I know what has been changed.

 

[Gustavus Rex]

Lately I am seeing only tweaked maps on ICL and my advice for tweaked maps would be to mention what exactly has been tweaked (if many changes at least the major ones or in general) so we know. You can put it in a spoiler tag. Seriously it would be nice to see non standard changes. For some reason tweaked maps are kinda discouraging to play unless I know what has been changed.

Allright. This one has nothing special except:

Spoiler :

Standard Pangea, but with Arid conditions (for more horsies) and 5 million years, to hopefully cut down on mountain ranges, and Raging Barbs

So this is more of a standard roll. Very fun map imo

(I was no big fan of tweeked maps either so I think I will keep within default elements from now on.)

 

[Nigel_Tufnel2]

I am looking to see some really fast DomV times on this one! I also would be interested to see some really strong religious play.

 

[Gustavus Rex]

t187 Domination

Spoiler :

I went for total domination but just as I was about to take what I thought was Chinas last two cities I noticed she had one more city out in the ocean... and since I for some reason forgot to beline astronomy I finished the game.

I don't know how many turns I would have saved just going for the capitals... I think I could have got a better start. t125 seems late to be up n running.

Fun map!

 

[prodi]

T194 DomV

Spoiler :

The start is pretty poor on production, I settled where the warrior started. The poor production delayed expansion a bit, and I was only able to steal one early worker so I had to put some early production into a worker as well. I got a Pantheon from meeting religious CS's, and picked food from camps. It didn't take long until Arabia spread their religion to me, though, which was fine since they had religious buildings.

The economy was good and I bought a library in the third city, but since my first expo was a bit delayed by producing an early worker in the capital, NC was a little late at T9x. After some more infrastructure buildings I had to refocus on chariot archers to be able to prebuild as many keshiks as possible. I only had 5-6 by the time I got Chivalry at around T120 and I after a little preperation I declared war on Arabia to be able to take them out before they got their camel archers.

The terrain was very open, so conquering Arabia, Siam, Austria and Brazil was easy with the Keshiks. There was a bit of a chokepoint towards Carthage and Greece, but well-upgraded Keshiks tore through all resistance quite easily, and Beijing was in very open terrain and was easily conquered as well.

Happiness was a bit of an issue for parts of the game, but Honor-gold and a fairly solid economy in its own right left me with plenty of gold to gift to CS's, and I only dipped below -10 for a couple of turns during the game while waiting for some conquered cities to burn down.

I went Honor, and filled it before the wars started. Culture after that was quite horrid, so I didn't even finish Commerce, which was the only other tree I opened. I bribed the nearby AI's to attack eachother to soften them up before attacking them myself. China, Greece and Carthage didn't need bribes as they're quite aggressive and were in a pretty tight spot.

I don't do domination that often, and rarely play the warmonger-civs, so this is my first game below T200. Mongolia is ridiculously good, though, so this map is on the easy side with such peaceful neighbours as well. The capital terrain has little to offer, though, other than food, so it did make it slower and more difficult in the beginning.

Thanks for the map, it was quick and fun to play.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Through 141, I was a bit behind the pace on Keshiks so I took Chariots and brought the party over to the East front. They didn't really have much chance. Now with super Keshiks and 3 more caps to go, it should go smoothly


edit: finished on T160. I obviously didn't scout nor plan ahead on anything so this was pretty much a blind run. 3 city Liberty, put a pair in Commerce because I was short on gold at one point. A really good player might even make this an under 100 effort. Picked bonus food from camps because I knew religion would never reach the Mongolian heathens. At the end only 2 Keshiks had Logistics and no city ever went past 25ish defenses.

At one point I was -20 happiness and barbs started to show up but not only did I manage to finish up a reserve batch of Keshiks, I allied a mercantile and happy was not a problem since

 

[consentient]

T90ish

I'm not sure if sub-T100 is possible on this map, but I'm doing pretty well and have half the capitals.

Spoiler :

Considering I spent quite a few turns moving my settler looking for some production, it's even more remarkable. What helped me along was 3x Pop ruins and a late one which I found on the coast with a Horsemen, netting me a really early Keshik! First time that's happened to me. Shoshone eat your heart out!

I have money saved for upgrades and I expect that there will be little resistance from the Western lands. As usual, AI nerfed themselves by taking Honor and Piety, which they can't play properly. Too bad Alex didn't go Liberty and make it a wee bit harder.

I'll go as fast as possible, but T150 is my realistic goal.

Rather predictably, given the Civ, the map, the Raging Barbs and the human player, my social tree has been Honor, with an extra one just put into Liberty.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Looking really really good, I estimate you finish in 140s.

I got really lucky that

Spoiler :

Alex took out both China and Carthage so I didn't have to bother with the pair so I just dropped the hammer on the pretty boy, split the horde and took both Athens and Beijing in the same turn

 

[consentient]

Maybe I'll pay him to do the same in my game. I doubt he can do it quicker than I get there, though.

He is the one who likes me the most, though. I guess his warmonger tolerance is higher.

Tbh, I know it's sacrilege to say so, but I really like

Spoiler :

Alex

. He is predictable and almost never hates me these days. Not like

Spoiler :

Nasty Pocatello.

Update - T132 Domination

Spoiler :

I definitely think I made the right plays once I got to the Western peninsulas. I sold all my buildings and paid Wu, Alex and Dido to war with each other while I took them down one by one. Of course I was taking insta-heal rather promotions and just using the Honor finisher to buy new ones in the nearest annexed city. The 2nd biggest army for the last 20 turns was the barbs who were pillaging my lands and trade routes, but it doesn't matter when you know you'll win real soon. A record unhappiness for me!

 

[stormtrooper412]

Nice!

Spoiler :

I started on Arabia around turn 85ish which I suppose was a bit late because it was an overkill and I think I lost one archer in total and because I was a bit behind on Horseback riding so I couldn't get the mounted melees up soon, and the military CS who specialized in Cossacks (I though they would give Horsemen) gave me additional Chariots, maybe had a total of 3-4 by the end.

I also accepted a peace deal after smacking a pair of Arabian cities when in fact I should have carried on, that set me back around 10 turns, I then paid off Austria to hit Siam while I dismantled her with Chariots and started working on second batch of units. Around there I saved up around 1700 gold ready for Keshiks.

Brazil had the Wall so they were a bit of a drag because the eastern army took their time hiking back to the front. Once I punched through Rio, he gave me all of his money for peace and it was a mop up from that point.

 

[Gustavus Rex]

Maybe I'll pay him to do the same in my game. I doubt he can do it quicker than I get there, though.

He is the one who likes me the most, though. I guess his warmonger tolerance is higher.

Tbh, I know it's sacrilege to say so, but I really like

Spoiler :

Alex

. He is predictable and almost never hates me these days. Not like

Spoiler :

Nasty Pocatello.

Update - T132 Domination

Spoiler :

I definitely think I made the right plays once I got to the Western peninsulas. I sold all my buildings and paid Wu, Alex and Dido to war with each other while I took them down one by one. Of course I was taking insta-heal rather promotions and just using the Honor finisher to buy new ones in the nearest annexed city. The 2nd biggest army for the last 20 turns was the barbs who were pillaging my lands and trade routes, but it doesn't matter when you know you'll win real soon. A record unhappiness for me!

GG!

OT:

Spoiler :

Pocatello

sure is scumbag no 1 these days. Him and

Spoiler :

Casimir

 

[consentient]

Just imagine how quickly Mongolia would move to the top of the Tier list if their UA wasn't actually counter to optimal strategies on Deity :O

 

[consentient]

I also would be interested to see some really strong religious play.

Interesting. I suppose OWN and Liberty/Piety could be interesting. Maybe faith-buy Keshiks?

t187 Domination

Spoiler :

I went for total domination...I don't know how many turns I would have saved just going for the capitals... I think I could have got a better start. t125 seems late to be up n running.

T187 is nice for a total sweep. Nice and bloodthirsty!

As for T125, did you beeline Chivalry or take some casual diversions?

T194 DomV

Spoiler :

The start is pretty poor on production, I settled where the warrior started. The poor production delayed expansion a bit, and I was only able to steal one early worker so I had to put some early production into a worker as well. ...The capital terrain has little to offer, though, other than food, so it did make it slower and more difficult in the beginning.

My advice is when there is no production, to walk the settler around a bit. I think I settled T6. There is no problem with this if you find a good spot, as it will more than make up for itself in the long run.

ot only did I manage to finish up a reserve batch of Keshiks

Where did the reserve get built? If you use an Annexed city close to the front, they can have instant effect in shortening the game. The barbs can't capture your cities if the game is won! And anyway, they rarely attack cities. Just nitpicking, as you could maybe have shaved 10 turns off by using those economic resources to rush buy in a front line city.

GG!

OT:

Spoiler :

Pocatello

sure is scumbag no 1 these days. Him and

Spoiler :

Casimir

Agreed. Poc, Cas, both Marias and Monty are the top 5 for me.

 

[Gustavus Rex]

Just imagine how quickly Mongolia would move to the top of the Tier list if their UA wasn't actually counter to optimal strategies on Deity :O

Yes. For total ultra-domination including all CS they should be no1 though!

 

[Gustavus Rex]

Interesting. I suppose OWN and Liberty/Piety could be interesting. Maybe faith-buy Keshiks?



T187 is nice for a total sweep. Nice and bloodthirsty!

As for T125, did you beeline Chivalry or take some casual diversions?



My advice is when there is no production, to walk the settler around a bit. I think I settled T6. There is no problem with this if you find a good spot, as it will more than make up for itself in the long run.



Where did the reserve get built? If you use an Annexed city close to the front, they can have instant effect in shortening the game. The barbs can't capture your cities if the game is won! And anyway, they rarely attack cities. Just nitpicking, as you could maybe have shaved 10 turns off by using those economic resources to rush buy in a front line city.



Agreed. Poc, Cas, both Marias and Monty are the top 5 for me.

Yea, A shame I failed getting all cities though but it felt good to go medieval on their asses!

Settled on turn 3. I went philosophy first, then chivalry with a slight detour to trapping. Normally I do 2 city NC with honor, buying library in expo for pre t100-Machinery but I really wanted 3x starting armies instead of my usual 1 so figured I needed a bit higher unit-cap.

I had hammers but failed crowing enough to work them due to pillaging from barbarians and failed early worker-stealing... As it turned out I used them as 2 armies anyway because how the cities were placed.

I haven't played many games with Mongol and Arabia so I'm a bit clueless how to optimize their start. Almost feels like cheating. I could have started the wars with chariots though. Kinda liked playing good guy then BAM! BLOODBATH!!!

 

[stormtrooper412]

@ consentient

It was actually during an interlude while I moved the main force back to the other front

 

[Nigel_Tufnel2]

Whoa, T132! That was faster than I expected! Nice job, consentient!

Religion:

Spoiler :

If you happened to explore N and SW you were likely to get a Pantheon very early from the Religious CSs, and Mt Kailash was nearby. Plus raging barbs meant lots of CS barb quests.

Off Topic: I had a couple dates with a woman this week, at one point she just randomly asks me if I've ever heard of Civilization... it's her favorite game. Damn, I should put a ring on it!