ALC Game 15: Ottoman/Mehmed II

[jerVL/kg]

Did someone say dotmap? I didn't have time to do the whole continent but this one should get you started:



Found red city first. Chop an Obelisk, and try to get the Oracle built here. Pink city should come 2nd, this will give you nice continuity when you build the Great Wall, which you will chop in your capital. I think GW is a major priority, that way you can totally ignore military and just build, build, build. You have eight forests in your capital, that's plenty for early wonder-chopping.

You're isolated, so your main priority is RESEARCH. That means cottages & libraries everywhere, and at least one religion (preferably 2 or 3) for monasteries. Tech path = Mysticism, Masonry, Meditation, Priesthood, Writing, Math/IW. Take CODE OF LAWS with the Oracle (Metal Casting is tempting, but religion & courthouses are more important!) Run 2 scientists in the capital for a GS to pop Philosophy (which is why I wouldn't build GW & Oracle in the same city, to keep the GP gene pool clean...although you could always pop Christianity with a Prophet.)

After that, it's MC/Machinery/Compass/Optics ftw! Not all at once, naturally -- you'll be slipping in techs, like Fishing, when needed. I would ignore the top of the tech tree entirely, in fact I wouldn't research Alphabet at all until you're ready to meet other civs. Yes, I know that means no Great Library...but you don't need it. (Trust me.)

You're going to have happiness issues, but with hammams + temples + hereditary rule (if necessary) you should be okay. Other wonders you want are Hanging Gardens & Colossus, and maybe U. of Sankore. Great Lighthouse would be nice, but without a coastal capital you've probably lost that one already. (Too bad the stone wasn't in your fat cross, otherwise I'd recommend Stonehenge & Pyramids as well...)

I'm glad you've decided to play this one out, I've always wanted to see how you handle an isolated start. And no, the HC game doesn't count!

 

[PublicEnemy]

I've got a feeling you're not as isolated as you may think.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you find on that landmass to the northeast, but even if that's empty you may be able to reach other civs with galleys.

If you are alone and you decide to head for Optics then you're going to need a few early cottages up and running to make your early economy as strong as possible.

I can't remember exactly the order of lightbulbing (haven't got the list with me), but I'm sure there's a way of bulbing astronomy, I think it requires you to miss meditation.

 

[KMadCandy]

Keep in mind that Mehmed comes with a built-in way to help reduce happiness problems (the Hammam). In the short term, by combining the UB with HR, I don't anticipate too many problems.

yup he's the man. the only time i've played him was medieval start, so i automatically founded judaism. i had no troubles with happiness at all! even without that i think you'll be fine, that map screenshot just make me go was all.

i've never even tried going cultural when isolated, totally not my style. i like to share their religious love (and hope to not provoke their righteous frenzy), that way i don't have to chase after founding all the religions myself. isolation would definitely make the land-grabbing easier, but it would take away the fun of culture-flipping their resource tiles . might be fun to watch you play it!

 

[carl corey]

I'd say you'll definitely want Colossus for this one. There are quite a few city sites that would require working water tiles and without Colossus they're quite bad.

 

[Immaculate]

If you want to get into the tech-race quickly, you may want to consider:
1) building the oracle for code-of-laws
2) adopting caste-system
3) generating 1 merchant, and 2 scientists (in that order) such that your merchant is done before math and your scientists come some time after (they won't be used until you have compass and calendar, but before theology or civil service)
4) use merchant for metal casting (prior to math so you can't bulb currency) this is why you need caste system- its impossible to run merchants pre-currency without it
5) use scientists to bulb machinery and optics (need compass and calendar)

It would also be interesting to see someone use caste system instead of slavery. It does have its benefits. And it would also make founding a city in the north with the fish and cows very useful as that would make a GREAT city under caste-system.
Later, once you have a merchant and a couple libraries, you can switch to slavery if you want to.

EDIT: oh yeah, and no meditation or else you'll light philosophy

My 2

 

[Charou]

I go along with what Immaculate suggested.
I approve Caste System instead of Slavery, also for the following reason :

You need big numbers in population. ( you are organised, expansive and hammam enthusiast )
for a large economy ( HE with a good number of cottages )

Dont crack the whip, fight the urge !

 

[namliaM]

This is -to me- pretty much set in stone. I.e. you cannot go wrong with these cities IMO

The one debatable point I think there is about this is the Teal vs Yellow.
You can use the green -desserty- city to get a lib up and run specialists (most likely scientists or Artists if you go culture).

Then to fill the remainder: Option 1, a bunch of OK-ish cities


And Option 2, A few big ones.


If you are isolated, bulbing Astronomy can still have you running with Jannies and profiting from them.
I would forgo any wonders, you simply lack the production capacity.
MAYBE Oracle or TGL if you can chop it, MAYBE Colossus if you can chop it in Blue or teal/yellow. Collosus with a beeline/rush to Astro is going to be short lived.

Short term, Get a granary and beeline CoL so you can fill the island.

 

[Killroyan]

Red city in mailmans dotmap. Why not 2 spaces up (N of the cows)?/ That would open up copper city 2W1N of the copper (with rice). Copper is great for the colussus. I agree with all of the top cities. The lower cities are debatable. Red city of JerVL is a bit low on food but has high commerce/production with cow/horse/gold.

Getting a galley/trireme/workboat out quickly is something to consider too. There is land in the NE corner. If you get a bit lucky you might come in contact with other civs. You nevern know and there may be some good land to settle.

 

[aelf]

Janissaries will definitely kick some barb bottoms. Unfortunately, that wouldn't show anything.

 

[scy12]

Red city will grow fast. In my game i founded first the blue city then the red one (yes it was the same location). I also advice at cottaging/farming all of your Sugar resources. There is an additional Sugar resource and you can always replace a farm-Sugar with a plantation.

 

[PublicEnemy]

The biggest early priorities are Iron Working to get rid of the jungle, workers to chop it (obviously) and a scouting workboat.

There's some great land under that jungle just waiting to be cottaged.

 

[a0161613]

That last dotmap was brilliant, go for white red and blue sites first.

nothing against the who did the first one but the distance charges would kill even with cheap courthouses whipped.

isolated cultural is my fav strat, tho i did it with ghandi, that made it a lot easier and Mehmeds traits do not exactly encourage it.

i say go for it then divert yourself to space race if you see too many "wonders being built elsewhere" messages.

 

[aelf]

Well, I just want to add some thoughts. This a point in the game where you have to make a very difficult decision, not knowing how things are going to turn out. Think carefully, but be realistic. What are the risks and what are your priorities? If you want to do a Gunpowder beeline, I advise you to restart. It's not worth taking the risk and potentially wasting your time. You're only going to play Mehmed once, aren't you?

I had to do this too. In my current game, for example, I had to choose: Go the safe way and research Construction for catapults first or maximise the Philosophical trait by researching Literature and building the GL first. In the end, I looked at the situation, weighed the risks and my priorities and decided that, in order to play well on Immortal, I had to choose the safe way in that instance. And indeed it was the right choice.

 

[pigswill]

The immediate issue in this game is going to be dealing with the barbarians that are due to appear very soon. Options will be major fogbusting, active defence (requires chariots asap) or great wall.

 

[scy12]

Not much fogbusting is required in such a small island. An axeman or two(for each city) , should be enough.(DAMN INSOMNIA,today)

 

[cabert]

I vote for a horse gold city very soon and a large fogbusting using sentry chariots.
This is something a lot of people seem to forget or simply don't know :
a sentry chariot next to pike will cover a huge sector.
+ chariots can take out all the barbs showing up (they have a hard time with archers on forested hills though )
IMHO, you only need 4 or 5 fogbusters here.

 

[Chrispy]

While a Gunpowder beeline to leverage the UU was planned initially, it appears the more traditional Liberalism->Astronomy beeline is in order. I'd also say that Oracle->CoL makes more sense now. So instead of leveraging the UU, we'll see the UB and the Organized trait leveraged.

I like namliaM's pink dot better than jerVL/kg's blue dot because the pink dot can work the gold easily. Working cows and horses will make working the gold difficult, and isolation makies the $$ from the gold mine a higher priority. I'd consider moving namliaM's gray copper site one east to be able to utilize the rice, and that or the horses should be the priority if you're not going for the Great Wall.

 

[Kietharr]

I'd like to see a large scale late midevil naval invasion, don't think i've ever seen one of those done. Beeline liberalism then pick astronomy and build a fleet of galleons, make trebs while working on gunpowder then go crazy with jans.

But for the moment, I agree with immaculate that slavery isn't really nessicary for this game, at least not for now. Mehmed's biggest advantage is gigantic cities which are ideal for a SE or HE, so caste system would be a pretty good idea. Plus you can get Confucism from CoL, and a religion will help with happiness. Once you get the island settled down you will only really need military for HR happiness. A strong late game navy is always a great idea on an isolated island, and I don't think we've seen a navy heavy ALC yet either.

 

[PublicEnemy]

If you do need Astronomy as early as possible then this may be worth trying.

The Wheel - Myst - Poly - Priest (CoL with the Oracle)

Fishing - Sailing - Writing - Maths (you'll need those anyway)

Iron Working - Metal Casting - Calendar

Compass - Machinery

If I've worked it out correctly you can lightbulb Optics and then Astronomy with two GS.

I don't know if going the Liberalism route is better, but it would certainly make a change from the usual.

 

[oyzar]

how plausible is it to attack with janisarries from galleons?